2016 seems destined to be remembered for some time as the year we lost the most icons. Obviously, I mean that in the popular entertainment sense, rather than the religious sense. Growing up Fundamentalist Baptist, I was not introduced to pretty much any of these folks until well into my adulthood at best, and so I’ve been getting acquainted with them posthumously, in turn as they each pass.

The latest loss, Leonard Cohen, has been the most interesting to me, and getting to know his work and life has been an expansive experience. It quickly became evident as I explored his oeuvre that he had a thorough knowledge of the scriptures, human nature, and the relation between the two in an organic (obscure pun intended) way. The most well-known example is, of course, his song “Hallelujah”. I’m not going to do any song analysis here, but I am going to reference his song in the tribute I wrote. It is, after all the only thing he said he’d be singing when he stood before the Lord of Song.

The final verse comes from an interesting metaphor Cohen used in his final interview: “The thrust of Jewish activity is the repair of God. God in creating the world dispersed itself, that creation is a catastrophe, and there are pieces of him, or her or it that are everywhere, in fact, and the specific task of the Jew is to repair the face of God.”

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Did you hear that Jewish boy sing Gospel songs in the night?
Did you hear he danced the dance of Shiva, danced it right?
Did you hear the hallelujah break forth from his soul?
Did you hear that finally his broken life is whole?

And he found it
That secret chord
From his minor fall
Lifted up to the Lord
And he sings hallelujah
And it’s broken no more
He sings hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Each love of his life was meant to be the love of the Lord
Every song he ever wrote was of that one single word
I know he must be singing still with the closing time choir
Face and cigarette aglow from that all-consuming fire

And he found it
That secret chord
From his minor fall
Lifted up to the Lord
And he sings hallelujah
And it’s broken no more
He sings hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

In his father’s robes he sings of God in human form
Of broken bits of the divine that all our cracks affirm
He’s gone to reassemble God so creation can rejoice
He bows before the face of God but he speaks with his voice

And he found it
That secret chord
From his minor fall
Lifted up to the Lord
And he sings hallelujah
And it’s broken no more
He sings hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Do you hear that Jewish boy sing Gospel songs in the night
He sings
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah