Thank you, Rabbi Sacks, from a Catholic nun. My soul continues to resonate deeply with what you say of Leonard Cohen and his song "You Want it Darker". As you say, "Thank you, Leonard! Yes, the world has grown darker, but we can still see light coming through the cracks and let that light lead us... to find love and redemption in this broken world." Shabbat sholom to you and all who visit here!
May, His Memory,be for a Blessing! He , has Penetrated, the Depths of My Soul!! Bask, IN the Light of Hashem! Surely, He has Encompassed, You, Within His Embrace!!
Four years later, after yet another "divisive and troubling" American presidential elections, on parashat Vayera, rabbi Sacks passed away. Will anyone eulogize him as movingly and he did Leonard Cohen? May your memories be in blessing.
Motti,I think the biggest tribute to Lord Rabbi Sacks must be the outpouring of comments on his life,his ach ievements and the millions who have been touched by his humble and powerfully intelligent messages of tolerance,love and understanding of the human psyche.
Rabbi Sacks expresses so wonderfully the meaning and depth of Leonard Cohen. For those who saw him merely as a singer, this may open your eyes to who Leonard really was and the recent loss of the Rabbi brings further to us how Rabbi Sacks was very special to the world.
This talk by Rabbi Sacks confirms my tentative interpretation of "Halleluyah" and other LC references. I am grateful for it. Earlier I listened carefully to Cohen's interviews. "Halleluyah" can be understood and heard in so many ways. I listened to L Cohen since the 60s. He had more meaning for my husband and me each time. But my husband died 10 years ago. I became a Brit decades ago.Thanks Rabbi and Leonard. Peace.
Thank you Rabbi Sacks. I am not a Jew but as I grow older and learn new things and ponder on my relation with The Almighty, I am realizing that I want to know more and more about Judaism. I had not known who Leonard Cohen was until eight years ago when a friend played a video of one of his concerts for me. Actually, his intent was to play only "Bird on a Wire". However I was so struck by Mr. Cohens performance that I ended up watching the complete show. Twice. The next day I did some research and began to learn more about Leonard Cohen, an ongoing process as there is much to know about this complex person. What you've done here has allowed me to understand his spirituality more clearly. Thank you so very much for helping me to appreciate yet another facet of Leonard Cohen, and perhaps even my own spirituality. Bless you and bless Mr. Cohen.
Sometimes the cracks open up. During my flying experiences at the college of aeronautics, Cranfield, UK., our training flights started in heavily clouded skies but as the aircraft climbed it suddenly emerged into brilliant sunlight. The feeling this creates is of wonder and it was no surprise to discover the college motto "Post Nubes Lux" which is latin for: "after the clouds, light!". May we all feel the magnificence of the Creator through the light that his works have spread. Halleluyah!
So beautiful...I've listened to Leonard Cohen for years, but never possessed the insight to interpret his lyrics as I have just experienced through you, Rabbi. Thank you.
I very much appreciate your commentaries here. I have long recognised that Cohen drew on his Jewish roots and his knowledge thereof; his songs are infused with such references. As a person of Christian upbringing, now lapsed, I did not know many of the details of his inspiration, and this commentary helps fill some of those gaps in my understanding. Mr Cohen is someone I have listened to since I was a young man. I feel that despite his reputation as someone who reeks of gloom, even his darkest songs have a rich and life affirming resonance. His passing is something that causes me much sadness, but on the other hand, I know I should be very grateful for his having been here at all.
Your analysis, Rabbi, is life affirming. As Cohen references a crack, letting in the light, you have followed that path and enlightened us. You Want It Darker is a riveting song, musically and lyrically, and you have embraced Leonard's story, and added to his legacy.
To see this video just after the tragic passing of Rabbi Sacks, let’s pray for the day the world supplies his replacement. We really need one, as this video demonstrates how greatly he’ll be missed.
Thank you Rabbi Sacks for an eloquent and moving tribute to the great Leonard Cohen. Like Leonard, I am a Jew who has also found a resonance in the teachings of the Buddha. The Kabbalah describes God as "Ain Soph Aur" - The Limitless Light. The Buddha taught that reality is Sunyata - often translated as 'Nothingness', but perhaps better described as "The Clear Light of the Void". The link is that the nature of this light is Unconditional Love in both traditions. We live in a world full of dukkha (suffering), but, underlying all is this Love. Shalom. Shankti. Peace.
Shalom, I am so grateful Yehovah let me find this, my pain is so deep I can't find its end, but I am trusting Him, crying out to Him, and really what He put in your heart ,has helped mine.
Thank you, it's good to know his message wasn't shunned by the ones who know, he wrote some of the most beautiful praises I have ever heard. I know he has his place in heaven and I hope I can see him some day.
Well said god bless you leonard thanks for letting us see your cracks and the light that shown from your heart in time your light has touched us all THANK YOU
Thank you for your discourse. I've long been a Cohen fan and think he saved his best work for last. Your comments gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of his music.
Rabi Sacks: Your video with your thoughts about the passing of Leonard Cohen was very insightful and thought provoking. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Rabbi Sacks, you are a wonderful, beautiful spokesperson. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and reminding us that the world, as dark as it may be, is filled with light and love. It's difficult to know exactly why things are a certain way, and how to deal with all the pain in the world, but we all have a part to play, a powerful one too. As we share love and beauty outward, we should embrace darkness and pain with warmth and care.
Rabbi, I really appreciate your explanation. I have been troubled by the song for quite a while. Leonard's songs have been a deep part of my life for years. Yet this song disturbed and confused me. Now I get it, especially your explanation of Abraham's intense situation. It is all about God's love and mankind's redemption. My favorite song is Hallelujah, so what a great, great thing to connect them. Thank you so much.
I appreciate your passionate and clear explanation, I could see some of the dots in one dimension, but thanks to your video now I can realize the multi-dimension of the song in a far clearer manner. Todah
Two great men give us teachings that are so meaningful, about Judaism and humanity - and finding light in dark times. A poignant message for both this week's parsha, Vayera, and our perilous social condition. Yet, even in darkness, we keep the flame of hope alive.
Shalom aleichem! Just think, Lenny is now a thousand floors above us in the Tower of Song, and if you listen real close you can him singing by his window. Hallelujah!
I watched this video a couple of years ago Rabbi Sacks ~ I too was deeply moved by Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want It Darker’... my immediate gut answer was ‘Yes, it appears to be so’. I could feel the engulfing darkness and yet had no words to tackle it. A few years later here we are, in the midst of it all. Leonard Cohen has shown us a way of stepping out from darkened shadows and to step into the eternal sound current of love and light. His teachings in art form are invaluable and bring much needed hope to this broken world.
I was totally mesmerised by this song when I first heard it. The song was the opening theme for the movie series ‘Dark earth rising’. I play it all the time, it is so inspirational. I delved into trying to fully understand the song. Researched so many articles but your analysis is amazing. Thank you for finally giving me a great insight to this song
Thank you Rabbi. It is obvious that both Leonard and yourself have looked very deeply into the meaning of these scriptures. Personally I can't help but feel that sometimes we look too deeply and miss the real message that is right under our noses.
I had just read Rabbi Sachs last amazing book, and that in itself is great great food for thought.... Now, his brilliant dissertation on the work of Leonard Cohen is more superb material for my mind to mull over. I am gtareful
Thank you, Rabbi Sacks, good to hear you again (in the mid90s at Oxford I heard you relate the Talmud definition about the two men who fall down the chimney, one coming out dirty, one coming out clean). Here's another witness to Leonard Cohen as a young man around 1968, told by Peter Cornish in "Dazzled by Daylight", p.149: "And rock stars and film stars like....continued to come to the Centre (Samye Ling, Scotland). They'd usually end up at my cottage...One such was Leonard Cohen. He was one of the few whose interest in Buddhism was more than a knick-knack found on the shelf of a curiosity-shop called The Sixties. He walked over from Samye Ling in the mornings, a serious young man in a black leather jacket. His humility emphasised the sincerity with which he joined in our quest to find a way through the lies and the myths. Someone asked him to sing "Suzanne" and he shyly sang his beautiful poem, while I gazed at my 'place near the river'. "
THANK YOU RABBI SACKS FOR YOUR WORDS ABOUT THIIS SONG BY LEONARD COHEN...I AM NOT A JEW BUT I LOVE WHAT YOU HAVE TOUGHT ME TONIGHT!! I AM NEAR THE END BUT I AM FEEL NOW THAT I AM NOT ALONE!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU RABBI FOREVER, MYRON DYAL (JUST A MAN FACING HIS GOD)!!!!!!
Very nice interpretation. Thank you very much. I have sung Hallelujah when leading services and have loved his works in a Jewish context. So much richness can be found there. One additional point is that Leonard Cohen's "Story of Isaac" is a great anti-war song emphasizing your points.
Magnificent teaching sir...have now taken up a course on the talmud after your telling me that Mr Cohens greatest line comes from Rashi...G-D Bless and Keep you , continue to lead us in Britain-the only spiritual leader who can teach-and still remembers that his faith IS still worth the exposition
I listened to Leonard cohen for the last 40years and I listening to every night just listen to rabbi sacks talk about his last song explaining the words of that song . I have always tried to tell people how funny Leonard is I hear a track and literally laugh at his lyrics I love him and always will
This is utterly brilliant. He expresses so clearly the vague thoughts I've had about You Want it Darker and he knows Cohen's oeuvre well. The one thought I'd add is that Cohen, quite early in his career, addresses the Akedah directly in The Story of Isaac. Cohen admonishes us "You who build these altars now, to sacrifice our children, you must not do it any more/A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted by a demon or a god/You who stand above us now, your hatchets blunt and bloody, you were not there before/When I lay upon the altar and my father's hand was trembling with the beauty of the word". The song goes on to say that the difference between the man of peace and of war is just vanity: "the peacock spreads his fan". Across decades Cohen is consistent in expressing his faith in the face of a deeply ambivalent moral universe.
As a huge Leonard Cohen fan and also a non-believer (of any sort of deity) I just want to appreciate your open take on this and the doubt (for lack of a better word) that some people can grow up to have. The quintessential "why have you forsaken me?" I do in no way wish for this to be meaning that it proves my non-believing standpoint! What I am trying to express is my respect and above all acknowledgement of the struggles with faith that people of faith (one of whom is my own very dear mother) deal with. I just wanted to give voice to the fact that non-believers love and understand as much as believers, is all. Love is real, regardless of where you believe it comes from.
Shalom Rabbi; your video really brought out the meaning of what Leonard Cohen was all about and his insight and love of Judaism. We can only hope and pray to Hashem for the light and love to reach us all.
My favourite 2 men , now with G-d and singing to His glory, Rabbi Sacks z'l and Leonard Cohen z'l. They are so missed by this dark world they have left behind
My feeling in a nutshell. These two men have, above all other people, inspired me: Leonard Cohen since I first heard his songs and read his poetry in 1971 and Rabbi Sacks since I first read him (and then met him) in 1997. As I write this, it's two years since we lost Rabbi Sacks, six since we lost Leonard Cohen. May their memories be for a blessing.
Thank you, Rabbi Sacks, from a Catholic nun. My soul continues to resonate deeply with what you say of Leonard Cohen and his song "You Want it Darker". As you say, "Thank you, Leonard! Yes, the world has grown darker, but we can still see light coming through the cracks and let that light lead us... to find love and redemption in this broken world." Shabbat sholom to you and all who visit here!
Like Leonard Cohen’s songs will speak to us long after his death, now Lord Rabbi Sacks words of wisdom will inspire us long after his passing.
May, His Memory,be for a Blessing! He , has Penetrated, the Depths of My Soul!! Bask, IN the Light of Hashem! Surely, He has Encompassed, You, Within His Embrace!!
So true! Thank you. 🙏❤❤✡
Dear Rabbi Sacks.(of blessed memory) ... You now will meet Leonard Cohen. Your brilliance lives on and has helped me to be a believer.....in good.
Rabbi Sacks how very beautiful is this video and your talk on Leonard Cohen! FOUR YEARS LATER AND YOU HAVE BOTH LEFT. YOUR MEMORY WILL BE A BLESSING
Four years later, after yet another "divisive and troubling" American presidential elections, on parashat Vayera, rabbi Sacks passed away.
Will anyone eulogize him as movingly and he did Leonard Cohen? May your memories be in blessing.
Thank You Motti.
Motti,I think the biggest tribute to Lord Rabbi Sacks must be the outpouring of comments on his life,his ach
ievements and the millions who have been touched by his humble and powerfully intelligent messages of tolerance,love and understanding of the human psyche.
Yes this was one of the most moving and evocative eulogies I have ever had the pleasure of seeing
Oh my God!!How beautiful your video was!! I'm a Moslem,but I was so profoundly impressed I couldn't help crying.
tooran oroojnia I'm not sure you mean 'but' , perhaps you meant 'and'. :). Shabbat shalom from Montreal.
You've made my day :))
Saalam and shalom.
Thank you.
peace and love brother
TH-cam is fantastic. All these wonderful talks by Rabbi Sacks that can be listened to after his death. What a gift.
Rabbi Sacks, thank you for your deeply moving and insightful song interpretation and tribute to Leonard Cohen. Absolutely stunning.
Rabbi Sacks expresses so wonderfully the meaning and depth of Leonard Cohen. For those who saw him merely as a singer, this may open your eyes to who Leonard really was and the recent loss of the Rabbi brings further to us how Rabbi Sacks was very special to the world.
Thank you Shaul, for reminding me of this beautiful lecture of Rabbi Sacks; may he rest in peace! May they both!
This talk by Rabbi Sacks confirms my tentative interpretation of "Halleluyah" and other LC references. I am grateful for it. Earlier I listened carefully to Cohen's interviews. "Halleluyah" can be understood and heard in so many ways. I listened to L Cohen since the 60s. He had more meaning for my husband and me each time. But my husband died 10 years ago. I became a Brit decades ago.Thanks Rabbi and Leonard. Peace.
Man, I wish I had had a Rabbi like that when I was young. I strayed so far from my faith. This Rabbi is amazingly inspiring,, Really brilliant.
You can "return" and it is never too late.
Fantastikrysia
Unfortunately Jonathan Sacks retired in 2014. Oxford educated and top class....
Ya what RMSAnalyst said
@@albanvic hes reaching more people now than any time in his career
What a fantastic man. He visited my grade 9 English class. What an honour🙏
Rabbi, you made me cry today. So beautiful and wonderful . Thank you so much and may Hashem bless you.
Wow. Genius mind. You've touched my life in a profound way. If only I could have met you. RIP, you beautiful soul.
Moved to tears... so sorry and mourning YOUR passing now, DEAREST COUSIN Rabbi Sacks
Thank you Rabbi Sacks. I am not a Jew but as I grow older and learn new things and ponder on my relation with The Almighty, I am realizing that I want to know more and more about Judaism. I had not known who Leonard Cohen was until eight years ago when a friend played a video of one of his concerts for me. Actually, his intent was to play only "Bird on a Wire". However I was so struck by Mr. Cohens performance that I ended up watching the complete show. Twice. The next day I did some research and began to learn more about Leonard Cohen, an ongoing process as there is much to know about this complex person. What you've done here has allowed me to understand his spirituality more clearly. Thank you so very much for helping me to appreciate yet another facet of Leonard Cohen, and perhaps even my own spirituality. Bless you and bless Mr. Cohen.
You can become a Noahide easily and begin your study of Torah. All the best Mr. McBride.
Thank you, Rabbi Sacks. The first time I heard Darker I knew it was special. Now I know why. Cohen will live on with this masterpiece.
Rabbi Sacks gave us a touching and so eloquent explanation of Leonard Cohen extraordinary songs .Grateful for doing it and thank you .
Sometimes the cracks open up. During my flying experiences at the college of aeronautics, Cranfield, UK., our training flights started in heavily clouded skies but as the aircraft climbed it suddenly emerged into brilliant sunlight. The feeling this creates is of wonder and it was no surprise to discover the college motto "Post Nubes Lux" which is latin for: "after the clouds, light!". May we all feel the magnificence of the Creator through the light that his works have spread. Halleluyah!
What a great speaker, teacher and role model. RIP Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
So beautiful...I've listened to Leonard Cohen for years, but never possessed the insight to interpret his lyrics as I have just experienced through you, Rabbi. Thank you.
Wonderful Rabbi Sacks, Shalom always. You made me cry, God Bless you always. Derek
I very much appreciate your commentaries here. I have long recognised that Cohen drew on his Jewish roots and his knowledge thereof; his songs are infused with such references. As a person of Christian upbringing, now lapsed, I did not know many of the details of his inspiration, and this commentary helps fill some of those gaps in my understanding. Mr Cohen is someone I have listened to since I was a young man. I feel that despite his reputation as someone who reeks of gloom, even his darkest songs have a rich and life affirming resonance. His passing is something that causes me much sadness, but on the other hand, I know I should be very grateful for his having been here at all.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, you were truely a fire that lit so many candles of faith. May your soul rest in peace.
Praise God for giving us The Music of Leonard Cohen 🙏🎶❤️
Rabbi Sacks is one of the few theists I can stand to listen to. He's a very wise man.
Your analysis, Rabbi, is life affirming. As Cohen references a crack, letting in the light, you have followed that path and enlightened us. You Want It Darker is a riveting song, musically and lyrically, and you have embraced Leonard's story, and added to his legacy.
Thank you, dear Rabbi Sacks. Leonard touched us all, deeply. He was a beautiful man. We were, and still are blessed by his legacy. Peace. ✨✨✨✨
How beautifully insightful. Thank you Rabbi Sacks
Rabbi Lord Sacks, i came to your channel from the Leonard Cohen song and am thankful I have heard your words.
To see this video just after the tragic passing of Rabbi Sacks, let’s pray for the day the world supplies his replacement. We really need one, as this video demonstrates how greatly he’ll be missed.
H no. I just saw your comment. How sad, I just discovered hom
Leonard Cohen was a symbol of dignity in the world of music. You could trust him.
I would love to listen to this Rabbi on an ongoing basis. Well done.
Krista Tippet on ON Being podcast has recently played an old interview with late R. Sacks, a wonderful interview
Thank you Rabbi Sacks for an eloquent and moving tribute to the great Leonard Cohen. Like Leonard, I am a Jew who has also found a resonance in the teachings of the Buddha. The Kabbalah describes God as "Ain Soph Aur" - The Limitless Light. The Buddha taught that reality is Sunyata - often translated as 'Nothingness', but perhaps better described as "The Clear Light of the Void". The link is that the nature of this light is Unconditional Love in both traditions. We live in a world full of dukkha (suffering), but, underlying all is this Love. Shalom. Shankti. Peace.
There are certainly a number of parallels, though Hellenism goes quite a different route.
Thank you for playing this. It touched me deeply. And thank you for perpetuating his teaching to bless all who will hear.
Thank You Rabbi, You have defined the essence of what it means to be a believing Jew. To love HaShem with every molecule of my existence.
Wow....very nice. I was never a fan of Leonard Cohen, but now I will check him out. Rabbi Sacks can make the back of a cereal box sound intriguing.
You are in for a treat the more u listen to leonard the more u will love him enjoy
Cohen will long be remembered fir his brilliance as will Jonathan Sacks. I put both of them right up there with Maimonides
thank you for this. i have heard the scripture singing to us through leonard for so long, and i am so glad that i am not the only one.
Thank you Rabbi Sacks. Your insight to the world is always appreciated.
Shalom, I am so grateful Yehovah let me find this, my pain is so deep I can't find its end, but I am trusting Him, crying out to Him, and really what He put in your heart ,has helped mine.
Thank you, it's good to know his message wasn't shunned by the ones who know, he wrote some of the most beautiful praises I have ever heard.
I know he has his place in heaven and I hope I can see him some day.
Brilliant! Missed so much, but your incredible legacy lives on in our hearts and minds. Todah Rabah.
Thank you rabbi ..the world is very dark...im waiting for a shed of light to come...
And to think that both Leonard and Rabbi Sacks died on the same date: November 7
wow , that I did not know
Well said god bless you leonard thanks for letting us see your cracks and the light that shown from your heart in time your light has touched us all THANK YOU
May their memories be blessings
Thank you for your discourse. I've long been a Cohen fan and think he saved his best work for last. Your comments gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of his music.
Rabi Sacks: Your video with your thoughts about the passing of Leonard Cohen was very insightful and thought provoking. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Rabbi Sacks, you are a wonderful, beautiful spokesperson. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and reminding us that the world, as dark as it may be, is filled with light and love. It's difficult to know exactly why things are a certain way, and how to deal with all the pain in the world, but we all have a part to play, a powerful one too. As we share love and beauty outward, we should embrace darkness and pain with warmth and care.
Thank you for testifying to the impressive spiritual dept of the songs written by my friend Leonard Cohen.
I love Rabbi Sacks ..and his analysis of Leonid Cohen's song
Rabbi, I really appreciate your explanation. I have been troubled by the song for quite a while. Leonard's songs have been a deep part of my life for years. Yet this song disturbed and confused me. Now I get it, especially your explanation of Abraham's intense situation. It is all about God's love and mankind's redemption. My favorite song is Hallelujah, so what a great, great thing to connect them.
Thank you so much.
Rabbi Sacks, may G-D bless you. You what you have is holy wisdom. You are a blessing.
Thank you Rabbi Sacks for these insights and your connective work in interpreting this song. I really am happy to discover your work.
Thank You.
May LOVE meet us , very soon. אמן .
Love to all creation.
This is first of all his creation.
I appreciate your passionate and clear explanation, I could see some of the dots in one dimension, but thanks to your video now I can realize the multi-dimension of the song in a far clearer manner. Todah
I don't think that many people realized or knew the great depth and majesty of his soul ...perhaps, not even himself. May he be at peace, always.
thank you for making things a little bit clearer
Two great men give us teachings that are so meaningful, about Judaism and humanity - and finding light in dark times. A poignant message for both this week's parsha, Vayera, and our perilous social condition. Yet, even in darkness, we keep the flame of hope alive.
I think it's absolutely wonderful that Rabbi Sacks has honoured the poet of song and connected the music of the soul with the lessons of the Bible
Shalom aleichem!
Just think, Lenny is now a thousand floors above us in the Tower of Song, and if you listen real close you can him singing by his window.
Hallelujah!
I watched this video a couple of years ago Rabbi Sacks ~ I too was deeply moved by Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want It Darker’... my immediate gut answer was ‘Yes, it appears to be so’. I could feel the engulfing darkness and yet had no words to tackle it. A few years later here we are, in the midst of it all. Leonard Cohen has shown us a way of stepping out from darkened shadows and to step into the eternal sound current of love and light. His teachings in art form are invaluable and bring much needed hope to this broken world.
I was totally mesmerised by this song when I first heard it. The song was the opening theme for the movie series ‘Dark earth rising’.
I play it all the time, it is so inspirational. I delved into trying to fully understand the song. Researched so many articles but your analysis is amazing. Thank you for finally giving me a great insight to this song
Thank you Rabbi. It is obvious that both Leonard and yourself have looked very deeply into the meaning of these scriptures. Personally I can't help but feel that sometimes we look too deeply and miss the real message that is right under our noses.
Thanks for this Rabbi. Very enlightening
A Man Before His Time, with such depth of the most importance of the knowledge of desperation öf something unique worldwide.
Thank you! That's what I needed to hear!
Sometimes its despair, sometimes its just a beautiful human being trying to help one another. I'm neither, but god blessed us today
The core truths of all faiths are the same, they are all truths. This is a timeless explanation for any faith. Thank you Rabbi
Rabbi, I've heard many a literature lecture that wasn't as deep, thoughtful, and insightful as your words. Thank you.
Wow that's so amazing and uplifting!! ישר כח
Thanks Rav, just great! Shabbat shalom!
I had just read Rabbi Sachs last amazing book, and that in itself is great great food for thought.... Now, his brilliant dissertation on the work of Leonard Cohen is more superb material for my mind to mull over. I am gtareful
Thank you, Rabbi Sacks, good to hear you again (in the mid90s at Oxford I heard you relate the Talmud definition about the two men who fall down the chimney, one coming out dirty, one coming out clean).
Here's another witness to Leonard Cohen as a young man around 1968, told by Peter Cornish in "Dazzled by Daylight", p.149:
"And rock stars and film stars like....continued to come to the Centre (Samye Ling, Scotland). They'd usually end up at my cottage...One such was Leonard Cohen. He was one of the few whose interest in Buddhism was more than a knick-knack found on the shelf of a curiosity-shop called The Sixties. He walked over from Samye Ling in the mornings, a serious young man in a black leather jacket. His humility emphasised the sincerity with which he joined in our quest to find a way through the lies and the myths. Someone asked him to sing "Suzanne" and he shyly sang his beautiful poem, while I gazed at my 'place near the river'. "
Brilliant reaction to one of my favourite songs
THANK YOU RABBI SACKS FOR YOUR WORDS ABOUT THIIS SONG BY LEONARD COHEN...I AM NOT A JEW BUT I LOVE WHAT YOU HAVE TOUGHT ME TONIGHT!! I AM NEAR THE END BUT I AM FEEL NOW THAT I AM NOT ALONE!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU RABBI FOREVER, MYRON DYAL (JUST A MAN FACING HIS GOD)!!!!!!
Very nice interpretation. Thank you very much. I have sung Hallelujah when leading services and have loved his works in a Jewish context. So much richness can be found there. One additional point is that Leonard Cohen's "Story of Isaac" is a great anti-war song emphasizing your points.
Magnificent teaching sir...have now taken up a course on the talmud after your telling me that Mr Cohens greatest line comes from Rashi...G-D Bless and Keep you , continue to lead us in Britain-the only spiritual leader who can teach-and still remembers that his faith IS still worth the exposition
Late Rabbi Sacks was a man who stood in the gap, we need to learn from him his wisdom, divine wisdom .
Beautifully presented Thank you ❤ 🇮🇪 December 2023
and my fathers hand was trembling with the beauty of the word
Wow....so inspiring! Thank you.
I listened to Leonard cohen for the last 40years and I listening to every night just listen to rabbi sacks talk about his last song explaining the words of that song . I have always tried to tell people how funny Leonard is I hear a track and literally laugh at his lyrics I love him and always will
thank you for an incisive commentary.always pertinent and instructive
So beautiful.
This is utterly brilliant. He expresses so clearly the vague thoughts I've had about You Want it Darker and he knows Cohen's oeuvre well. The one thought I'd add is that Cohen, quite early in his career, addresses the Akedah directly in The Story of Isaac. Cohen admonishes us "You who build these altars now, to sacrifice our children, you must not do it any more/A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted by a demon or a god/You who stand above us now, your hatchets blunt and bloody, you were not there before/When I lay upon the altar and my father's hand was trembling with the beauty of the word". The song goes on to say that the difference between the man of peace and of war is just vanity: "the peacock spreads his fan". Across decades Cohen is consistent in expressing his faith in the face of a deeply ambivalent moral universe.
So beautiful. Thank you.
As a huge Leonard Cohen fan and also a non-believer (of any sort of deity) I just want to appreciate your open take on this and the doubt (for lack of a better word) that some people can grow up to have. The quintessential "why have you forsaken me?"
I do in no way wish for this to be meaning that it proves my non-believing standpoint! What I am trying to express is my respect and above all acknowledgement of the struggles with faith that people of faith (one of whom is my own very dear mother) deal with.
I just wanted to give voice to the fact that non-believers love and understand as much as believers, is all.
Love is real, regardless of where you believe it comes from.
Shalom Rabbi; your video really brought out the meaning of what Leonard Cohen was all about and his insight and love of Judaism. We can only hope and pray to Hashem for the light and love to reach us all.
Beautiful. Thank you for the brilliant lecture.
- A stubborn old not Jewish agnostic -
You might like to stop sitting on the fence, but take on both sides of it as an illogical but devout believer, like me.
Thank you! My favorite rabbi! ✡️😎🙏🏽💟
I feel like this was Rabbi Lord Sack’s z”l goodbye or lheetraot “until we meet again” song to us, spoken via Leonard Ohen z”l
Together with Leonard Cohen you bring light into this world. Over alles heen... as always and forever : Jerusalem.
Thanks for the education Rabbi Sacks..... appreciate your video!
Most Excellent Rabbi; I feel the same way about his last Album and You Want it Darker ...it's his Tshuva
Rabbi Sacks will be greatly missed.
My favourite 2 men , now with G-d and singing to His glory, Rabbi Sacks z'l and Leonard Cohen z'l. They are so missed by this dark world they have left behind
My feeling in a nutshell. These two men have, above all other people, inspired me: Leonard Cohen since I first heard his songs and read his poetry in 1971 and Rabbi Sacks since I first read him (and then met him) in 1997. As I write this, it's two years since we lost Rabbi Sacks, six since we lost Leonard Cohen. May their memories be for a blessing.
Still a timely message. Thank you.
God is found through Jesus Christ our Saviour!! Praise Thee Lord Jesus.