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Praise the Leonard

September 29, 2016 12:08
29092016 7e9c7ecd00acf1f6a56c38f27f1a167b

ByAnonymous, Anonymous

1 min read

The taster track released as a preview of Leonard Cohen's forthcoming album is suitably sombre ahead of Rosh Hashanah. Not only that but You Want It Darker ranks as one of the most Jewish of the writer of Hallelujah's songs.

It features backing from the choir of Shaar Hashomayim, the Montreal synagogue in which he grew up, along with a solo from its chazan, Gideon Zelermyer.

Its chorus repeats the word Hineni, "Here I Am", Abraham's response when he is called to offer up his son Isaac.

And it also contains a reference to the Kaddish, "Magnified, sanctified, be Thy holy name" (although you won't find the next line in your siddur, "Vilified, crucified in the human frame").