I’m absolutely not a rabbi, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this, actually, and what stealing might mean to gd. and I know this post is probably a joke but like I said. been thinking about it a lot.
So what a lot of people may not know is that the Torah is mostly like. a farming manual. A day-to-day life guide for 6,000 years ago. And so it has instructions for harvesting, of course. But it says specifically that you shouldn’t reap all the way to the edge of your field, and that you should leave that for the poor. It also says that you shouldn’t take the fallen grapes from your vineyard, and to leave that also for the poor. And a lot more little things like that.
So why is it encouraged? Why doesn’t it count as stealing for the poor to take the food you grew?
I think that gd’s definition of stealing would, in this case, punish you if you did take the fallen food from your fields, because you’d be taking it from the mouths and bellies of people who clearly desperately need it. It’s not the poor who are stealing, because they are simply trying to survive. I think gd wants us to remember, in our harvests, in our successes, that we have a duty to give what we can to those who need it, and if we don’t, that’s stealing from our fellow human.
“The terms “Judeo-Christian tradition” and “Judeo-Christian morality” are wrong and misleading. They are a slap in the face of all the great Jewish teachers throughout history, whose responses to today’s moral questions would in no way resemble those of the Vatican or of the Christian Right, and whose attitudes toward sin, physical pleasure, human dignity, and the earth differ vastly from those of Christianity. The Christian faith is entitled to its doctrines and world outlook, but it is not entitled to its claim of kinship with Judaism, neither theologically nor cosmologically. At least during its centuries of barbarism and savagery against Jews and other non-Christians, Christianity was authentic enough not to associate its theology with that of Judaism. In our current age of openness and ecumenism, it ought to remain at least as authentic and not attempt to heal it’s wrongs against Jewdom by claiming retroactive fellowship with Judaic theology and cosmology. This is only a further wronging of the Jewish heritage and its way of life by a religion that has already wronged it enough.”
— Rabbi Gershon Winkler, The Way of the Boundary Crosser: An Introduction to Jewish Flexidoxy
I wrote this a while ago for FB after someone asked "wait, what is the song really about, I thought it was about an abusive relationship?" Thought I would share here.
“Had the [Republican National Convention] requested another song, “You Want it Darker,’ … we might have considered approval of that song,” e
This is your obligatory PSA that Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen is a DEEPLY and undeniably Jewish song.
Cohen was born, lived, and died as an Orthodox Jew - he also embraced elements of Buddhism, but contrary to what people may assume, that doesn't mean he stopped being a religious Jew. He himself said so in interviews - that he was content with his religion and identified as Jewish.
A lot of his music is informed by his Judaism and by the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. For example, Abraham's famous line of "hineni" or "here I am" being used as the refrain in "You Want it Darker." Cohen's "Who By Fire" is a pretty literal interpretation of the Unatoneh Tokef prayer from the Yom Kippur liturgy, about inescapable morality. His work is often very literally and directly informed by his Judaism.
Hallelujah is perhaps the ULTIMATE example of Judaism in Cohen's work. It uses two famous stories from the Tanakh - the imagry of "bathing on the roof" comes from King David (of secret chords and psalmistry) and his adulterous lust for Batsheva. The lyric about tied down and having ones hair cut is an allusion to Delilah cutting Shimshon/Samson's hair, betraying him and stealing his strength.
Hallelujah itself is a Hebrew word - "Hallel" means praise, the "u" ending makes it a vocative command, and "Jah" represents the Divine, the object of praise. It means "you should/let us praise the Divine."
Cohen wrote DOZENS of verses for the song, and most people covering the song use the ones selected by Jeff Buckley for his cover. However, if you look at the original verses Cohen sang, you'll find even MORE Jewish sentiment.
"They say I took the name in vain, but I don't even know the name." Blasphemy or taking G-d's name in vain has a very different meaning in Judaism - we can't use G-d's sacred Name unless we are directly addressing G-d, and even then, only the high priest can use it, and only in the most sacred place in the Temple at the most sacred time of the year. But because the Romans destroyed the Temple and exiled us, the high priest line was broken, the Temple doesn't exist, and the Name is believed to have been passed down secretly in Babylonia until as late as 600ce, when it vanished entirely.
In a real sense, the original way that we communicated with G-d in Judaism has been destroyed by outsiders, and we've had to adapt. Judaism moved on, now a religion of text instead of Temple, but there's still a GREAT sense of loss and displacement around that issue.
"There's a blaze of light in every word, it doesn't matter what you heard, the holy or the broken hallelujah" - not to get too deep into it, but, this is a reflection of Kabbalah, Jewish ontological mysticism. One explanation of creation is that G-d, the Eternal, withdrew in order to make space for the universe to be born. As G-d collapsed inwards, everything in the universe emanated out from G-d's person like shafts of light. Everything that exists came from one of these 10 eminations of divinity or the 22 letters of the Hebrew language. There's a blaze of light in every word - a spark that reflects how G-d used light and words to create everything.
This gets very very interesting when you get to the idea of "the holy or the broken." Kabbalah conceives of those eminations as vessels that hold the divine light of G-d, but that the reason evil exists in the world is that long ago, the vesseks cracked and the sparks all fell out. Now, each positive aspect like love, strength, harmony, has a negative aspect, like death, sadness, corruption. Tikkun olam, or repairing the world, is the job of doing more and more good deeds in the earthly realm so that we can gather up all that light and positivity and repair what's been broken in the world, on a personal level but also a cosmological one. So, while there's a holy hallelujah - joy, thanksgiving, gratitude, praise - there's also brokenness, sorrow, despair. But even that is part of the world, an empty shadow of the good aspects of existence, and you have to take the bad with the good and just try to make the world better.
"And even though it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of Song, With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah." In Judaism, we don't need an external source for salvation. You do the best you can, you apologize when you do wrong and try to do better, and if you still suck, you go to the equivalent of purgatory for 11 months max. Thats it. No hell, and no Jesus required.. Many Jewish people don't believe in an afterlife at all, or believe in other options like reincarnation. But anyone who does believe in a positive afterlife (analogous to heaven or paradise) believes it's available to anyone who simply tries to be a good person.
Now, one of the biggest problems actually comes from people adapting Jeff's version. The verse "Maybe there's a God above" was written by Cohen, but he didn't sing it. Jeff Buckley chose to include it in his rendition. "Maybe" theres a G-d is a VERY Jewish sentiment. We are a religion, NOT a faith. Belief in G-d is more or less optional. No one, even in Orthodox circles, will ever ask you about your personal belief in G-d. That's none of their business, it's quite rude, like asking about money or something. Everyone sorts out their spiritual journey on their own, and Judaism makes a LOT of space for questioning, doubt, multiple conflicting viewpoints, even downright disbelief. As a result, there are many agnostic and atheist Jews who are still deeply religious and fully observant. However, in an ire inducing brand of Christian hubris, most Christian artists choose to change this to "I know that there's a God above," TOTALLY stripping the Jewish context from that line because doubt is not culturally acceptable in their faith-centric system.
Unfortunately, Christians often go even farther than inserting a forced and obligatory belief in G-d - I have heard renditions of Hallelujah with the lyrics totally changed, so that it becomes an Evangelical worship song about the love of Jesus, a Christmas song about the birth of Jesus, or even (horrifyingly) a Passion narrative song for Easter about the death of Jesus. There are THOUSANDS of songs on those topics already. Stealing a Jewish song for a Christian purpose is ironically just like the story of the rich man with many sheep who stole the poor man's only sheep. Which is a metaphor for David stealing Batsheva from Uriah. WHICH IS LITERALLY IN THE SONG. It's the biggest religion on earth stealing something from one of the smallest. To make matters worst, juxtaposing it with the crucifixion is BEYOND tone deaf, considering one of the origins of antisemitism is the accusation that Jews killed Jesus. No one in history has mistreated, exiled, exterminated, and abused the Jewish people to the extent that Christians have - and still, they have the nerve to take a fundamentally Jewish song and appropriate it for their purposes.
Hallelujah is a beautiful song, and many people of all backgrounds relate to it. That's because, though it is a deeply Jewish song, its fundamentally about the tension between beauty and brokenness - in love, life, humanity, the divine, and the universe. Everyone relates to that. But thats THE central and foundational message of the song, onto which other messages are applied.
To make it about Christmas, Jesus, or the crucifixion STRIPS that message and replaces it with (what Judaism essentially considers) idolatry.
To use this song at the RNC in support of the Trump campaign does the same thing. Though the lyrics were unchanged, the true message was stripped away, leaving behind an undeniable message - praise Trump. This is idolatry, this is blasphemy, this is appropriation, this is theft, this is defilement and violation and assult.
And, since the internet is awash in bad, uninformed, goyische takes about the meaning of the song, here are some articles from Jewish people:
Leonard Cohen's Five Most Jewish Songs
Leonard Cohen’s Jewish-infused poetry, songs inspired generations
No but really, I cannot put into words how fundamentally wrong it is that public schools can assign things over incredibly meaningful holidays like Yom Kippur.
Last year was a vivid example, and also one of the worst fasts I’ve ever done. My history teacher assigned us a full paper, insisting that it was reasonable since we had the entire day to do it. As one of the few practicing Jews in my class, I immediately objected because not only was that unfair, it was actually impossible to do without serious harm to my own health.
Because Yom Kippur started that very night with a solid two hours of services. I would go home, eat dinner (at like 4:30 because you have to do it before services), change, and then be at synagogue. Services would go until at least 8 o’clock, which meant I would get home around 9.
See any time for homework in there?
Now, pretend you’re me for a moment here. Services tomorrow morning start at 9, and you usually want to get there earlier unless you’re willing to end up in an overflow room. So staying up late to do it isn’t an option if you want more than four hours of sleep.
Now, it depends on how religious you are, and you can pick and choose, but there’s services more or less throughout the entire day on Yom Kippur. If you want to attend, which should absolutely be an option without compromising yourself academically, then you’ll be there until break the fast comes.
That’s right! You’ve been fasting all day, because that is an absolutely key part of Yom Kippur. (If you are under age thirteen, are pregnant, or are sick you are exempt but otherwise fasting is expected.) There are many reasons—reminding yourself of your mortality, to remember the sufferings of others—but ultimately it’s not an opt-out kind of thing.
But when can you break the fast exactly? It actually varies! Because it’s meant to be done one hour after sundown (25 hours total), but that’s a little different each year. It’s usually around 8 pm, which would be when services end for the day.
Now you can eat! Let’s aim low and give it half an hour to get home from services, and then another hour and a half to actually break the fast.
It’s 10 o’clock. You’ve only just eaten and your stomach probably hurts, because stuffing yourself after a fast can be really bad for your health. You’re back home for the first time all day.
You still have a paper to write.
How is that fair? If I’ve just gotten off of a fast, having spent all day immersed in religion and contemplating my own mortality, I’m not gonna be in a place to do any kind of work, academic or not.
And even if I’d had breaks in services (I can’t stay still all day, so I usually head home for a few hours in the middle), I was still fasting. When I’m hungry I have trouble working, for obvious reasons. And in this case the issue isn’t access, but the fact that I am prohibited from eating anything. Depending on how seriously you take it, you might not even have had water today. I fast with water after nearly passing out from dehydration during a fast for Tisha B’Av, but not everyone does! If you haven’t had anything to eat or drink, it’ll be incredibly difficult to focus on writing anything.
I explained all of this to my teacher, and she instead said I could just turn it in late. She also said I’d still be marked down for late work, so how is that any help?
I did that paper the day after. It was a day late, a few points off, but I held it against my teacher for months. Not because of the grade itself, but because she put me in that situation to begin with.
I should have been allowed to observe Yom Kippur. I should have been able to spend the day thinking and reflecting on my mistakes and contemplating my own life. That’s literally what the holiday is for. But instead I spent the whole time with that stupid grade in the back of my head.
Even on what is arguably the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, I still wasn’t given a break.
ALSOOO wanna hop in and mention that orthodox jews literally CANNOT PUT PEN TO PAPER OR USE ELECTRONICS on high holy days. It would literally be 100% impossible for them (me lol) to do any sort of assignment on Yom Kipur regardless of mental health or time allowance. It’s just that simple.
My senior year of college a professor who really hated me literally had us take the midterm a week early so it would be on Yom Kippur and I think it was intentional but the system to do anything about it was next to impossible to get through so I had to skip services for this stupid midterm
to all the jewish people who can’t fast during yom kippur because of chronic illness: may your name be inscribed in the book of life, and I wish the best for however you decide to observe
couldn’t fast on liquids because i take meds and the side effect of one is dehydration but other than that, i’ve fasted and i’m so close to sundown and i’m really proud
