Damned Psychopath

rest well

In Hebrew

You say I took the name in vain I don’t even know the name But if I did, well really, what’s it to you? There’s a blaze of light In every word It doesn’t matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah

These are specifically about Chassidic Jewish theories of the holy language, how each letter and combination of letters in Hebrew contains the essence of the divine spark and if used correctly, can unlock or uncover the divine spark in the mundane material word. And of course, there are secret names of God which, when spoken by any ordinary human would kill them, but if you are worthy and holy and righteous can be used to perform miracles or even to behold the glory of God face-to-face. The words themselves have power. Orthodox Jews often won’t even pronounce the word “hallelujah” in it’s entirety in conversation, because the “yah” sound at the end is a True Name of God (there are hundreds, supposedly) and thus too holy to say outside of prayer.

None of this is to mention how David’s sin in sleeping with Batshevah (the subject of much of the song, with a brief deviation to Shimshon and Delilah) is considered the turning point in the Tanach that ultimately dooms the Davidic line at the cosmological level and thus dooms Jewish sovereignty and independence altogether. From a Christian perspective this led to Jesus, the King of Kings, and that’s all very well and good for them, but for the Jews, the Davidic line never returned and is the central tragedy of the total arc of the Torah. Like, our Bible doesn’t have a happy ending? And that’s what this song is about? There’s no Grace - you just have to sit with the sin and its consequence.

Of course, Cohen is referencing all of this ironically, and personalizing these very high-level religious concepts. Like the point of this song is that Cohen, the songwriter, is identifying with David, the psalmist, and identifying his own sins with David’s. The ache that you hear in this song is that the two thousand year exile that resulted from one wrong night of passion and Cohen feels that the pain he has caused to his lover is of equally monumental infamy. Basically, in a certain light, the whole of Psalms is a vain effort for David to atone for his sin and I think Cohen was writing this song in wonderment that David could eternally praise the God who would not forgive him and would force him and his people into exile. But he ultimately gets how you have to surrender to the inexorable force of God in the face of your own inadequacies and how to surrender is to worship and to worship is to praise - hence, Hallelujah. You can either do the right thing and worship God from the start, or you can fuck up, be punished, and thus be forced to beg for His forgiveness. It’s the terrible inevitability of praise that’s driving him mad.

Like honestly, I identify with this song so strongly as an off-the-derech Jew, I sometimes wonder what Christians can possibly hear in this song, as it speaks so specifically to the sadomasochistic relationship that a lapsed Jew has with their God. It’s such a different song from a Christian theological perspective it’s almost unrecognizable, man. This song continues to be a wonder of postmodern Jewish theology and sexuality from start to finish. Don’t let anyone give you any “Judeo-Christian” narishkeit. This is a Jewish song.

As was mentioned above, many congregations use the tune of this song for prayers, most notably in the context of Kabbalat Shabbat, a service before Shabbat begins which is almost entirely made up of the recitation and singing of poetry about the central Jewish metaphor of marrying the concepts and ideals of our religion. Works like Yedid Nefesh, Lecha Dodi, and even the much longer Shir Hashirim all echo with the concepts of deep, conflicted, human, and yes, sexual, love for Hashem, for the Jewish people, for our history, and for our law. We gravitate so much to this song because it is sexual, not in spite of it.

Other songwriters mix religious and sexual themes to great effect, but where Take Me To Church and others like it see sex as blasphemy-turned-holy, Hallelujah instead approaches sex as being something holy that can be turned to blasphemy (and then perhaps turned holy again… and back, and forth, forever). David takes an inherently holy act (sex), and profanes it by the wrong he commits against Beershevah and her husband, and then spends the rest of his life trying to bring out the inherent the goodness which his sexuality always had within it before he sinned – rather like how kabbalistic thought seeks to bring out the “blaze of light / in every word” through tikkun olam (the process of repairing the metaphysically fractured world). It’s such an incredibly powerful connection of disparate ideas and images within Jewish spirituality, and I cannot even express the amount that you lose if you take it outside of that context. 

Actually, I’d say yes. Your stereotypical cultural American Christian sees the word “hallelujah” and goes, “HOLY SHIT IT’S OKAY TO LIKE THIS SONG” because, as with most “Christian” things, they see it more as a connection to the culture of being an American Christian based on its trappings rather than its message.

“What the hell is–”

[Note: HE JUST KIN ASSIGNED MY MOM ROSE FUCKING LALONDE]

How to make a green pumpkin 紫砂壶 zishahu (Chinese boccaro teapot/ Yixing clay teapot)

me every single time:

Few things have sustained more than a broken window or some graffiti.

Photos and videos of completely trashed buildings are including those that have been that way for years.

Stats on closures and financial losses are being confused with those related to covid-19.

The news keeps mentioning the same two or three little “family owned” businesses that got hurt in outbreaks of panic but can’t seem to come up with any more than that.

That’s because downtown is dominated by places Starbuck’s, Rite-Aid, Target, Apple, Microsoft, Nordstrom Rack, Whole Foods, Men’s Warehouse, Payless, AT&T, Sprint, Doc Marten’s and other big chain brands.

Brands which themselves cost hundreds of people their livelihoods or homes when they came here, which people were already angry about before any of this happened.

This is in fact one of the fastest gentrified cities in America.

Oops, I forgot the scientology building got vandalized too. Poor babies.

And STILL, the most that’s happened to the majority is a little graffiti.

Vandalism of business was already commonplace in a city where so much business was lost to gentrification, and the relationship between several major companies and its citizens already strained for very good reason. In fact, this isn’t even a downtown location, but a beloved bowling alley people were hoping to see reopen a couple years ago:

And here it is now: