The great Leonard Cohen with the equally great Sonny Rollins and gospel-inspired backup.

This is basically Leonard Cohen’s version of the Rosh Hashanah prayer Unetaneh Toker:

On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquillity and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.

(from the Orthodox Union web site)

Guilt and Pleasure magazine quotes Cohen as deriving the song “from the melody which I heard when I was sat in a synagogue. And of course the ending of my song is something different. ‘Who shall I say is calling?’ This is my kind of prayer: who is it, or what is it, which determines man’s life?”

Would the world be a better place if young Leonard had been spared the “child abuse” of hearing this prayer in synagogue? Who knows?

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 pm and is filed under American Culture, Religion, Uncategorized, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.