A Discussion on the apparent Blasphemy(ies) in “Halleluiah” by Leonardo Cohen
Introduction
Three years ago I officiated at a wedding where the groom (a good friend of mine) had wished to match into the church on the tune of the redone version the song Hallelujah by Leonardo Cohen. A few days before the wedding, I was informed by the Worship Leader that the resident Clergy had not approved of the choice of that particular song, and he had advised that I guide the groom to choose another. Else the worship team would have to choose any convenient and appropriate alternative for him.

It was the first time that I as drawn to reflect on the lyrics of one of the world’s greatest creative pieces of our day. It was recently brought back to my attention when I was outside a Cathedral where a wedding was happening, and I heard the band singing it as a matching song for the bride. I wondered why in one church it is prohibited (rendered blasphemous) and yet in the other it is joyfully sung.

Is there any such a thing as Blasphemy in Leonardo Cohen’s Hallelujah?
Shari Abbott of “Reasons for Hope* Jesus” asks, whether the song that is littered with biblical themes/verses is really Biblical?2 And goes on to highlight the various Bible references in the various verses of the song.

On the basis of Cohen’s life and Jewish convictions, and references to Jesus in his remarks, Abbott concludes that, “While the music is hauntingly moving, and the word Hallelujah (which means “praise Yah”/ YHWH) is repeatedly proclaimed in the refrain twenty-nine times), the song’s lyrics do not honor God.”3 She then recommends a version with lyrics that magnify God and honor His name by proclaiming the work of Jesus in redeeming mankind from sin, an adaptation by Kelly Mooney.4 The song has been redone by various famous Artistes, Bob Dylan (1988), Jeff Buckley (1991), Bono, and Bon Jovi among others, and is often a popular hit at Music and Talent Search Shows. But his own version done in London has revieved over 200 million views, while Jeff Buckley’s cover has attracted, and Alexander Burke’s cover done on British talent show The X-Factor has close to 112.5 million views5. It has been regarded as far and away Leonard Cohen’s most famous composition.6 The Pentatonix cover alone has over 700 million views on YouTube.

In the Christian tradition, “Hallelujah” is a word of praise rather than a direction to offer
praise – which became the more common colloquial use of the word as an expression of joy or
relief, a synonym for “Praise the Lord,” rather than a prompting to action. The most dramatic
use of “Hallelujah” in the New Testament is as the keynote of the song sung by the great
multitude in heaven in Revelation, celebrating God’s triumph over the Whore of Babylon.             

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah 7

Cohen’s complicated sexual and spiritual meditation does not shy away from the
entanglement of the sacred and the secular (material, sexual, bodily) urges of human life:
“There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in” (Leonard Cohen, Anthem). His
hallelujah is “not a victory march/It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.”8

While Hallelujah has been played and regarded by some as Christmas Holidays’ song, Scott Cost of the Herald9 objects; “It is an anthem for sad scenes. It is a haunting melody. It is a vehicle to showcase a singer’s range. But it is by no means a Christmas song. In fact, it really isn’t a religious song at all. It is a story of a love gone wrong, with some religious imagery splattered in. It isn’t something to be tapping the toes to as we are Rocking Around the Christmas Tree or having a Holly, Jolly Christmas. It is a bemoaning of a love gone bad.

This what Luke Buckmaster, writing for the Daily Review said of Hallelujah in November 2016; “The song is steeped in Christian imagery and this is Cohen attempting to come to terms with the third commandment. If we are instructed that “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” the instruction comes with an inference that we know what God’s name is in the first place. But if an exclamation such as “Jesus!” or “God!” is uttered without significance (i.e. in vain) by somebody with no grasp (perhaps no education) of what people of faith believe God to be, can that accusation still have merit?”

Buckmaster asks, alternatively, can’t any word be used to describe God depending on the nature and comprehension of the observer (a rose by any other name, etc.) thus any word could break that commandant? If so, Cohen appears to be saying, what’s in a name, then, and really, what’s it to you?

Well, maybe there’s a God above  

As for me all I’ve ever learned from love 

Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you 

But it’s not a crime that you’re hear tonight It’s not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the Light.

No, it’s a cold and it’s a very broken Hallelujah.

Buckmaster further argues that Hallelujah clearly invites deeper interpretations, and these ones merely scratch the surface. The song’s impact arises not from reading it line by line, per se, but line to line. It works like cinematic juxtaposition. Each line is an image, and meaning is formed not from a single image but a combination of two or more. In motion pictures, if we see a shot of a sad-looking man followed by a shot of a coffin, we understand the man is grieving. If we see a sad-looking man followed by an apple, we understand he is hungry. Most, perhaps all, poetry works in similar ways, connecting meaning one line to the next. But in Hallelujah, and Cohen’s work more broadly, the area between those lines is a particularly playful space – where the real heart, soul and depth of meaning lies.

The “Brokenness” in Cohen’s Hallelujah
Is Cohen’s Hallelujah a broken one, or not even a Hallelujah at all? What “breaks it or nullifies it from being a Hallelujah? What makes it different from the one raised by Bethel.13 Is it only in the number of views on YoutTube?

If Cohen’s Hallelujah is a broken one, then what about those who sing it? What if Cohen was drawing our attention to David’s and Samson’s broken Hallelujahs? Wouldn’t that be an invitation for us to reflect on our own “Hallelujahs”? Do our Hallelujahs go beyond the raising of hands and emotionally swinging them rhythmically? Are our Hallelujahs wholly focused on God, or divided, distracted, and broken by the pleasures of the flesh and the world? Could Cohen be pointing us to the brokenness of our own “Hallelujahs”, given that we are a fallen humanity living in a broken world, yet we focus on his personal life and the mingling of his lyrics with sexual? What if his lyrics are a parable, a genius of poetry that we need to pay further attention and scratch a little deeper before we can judge?

If Hallelujah is a proclamation of praise to Yahweh, then inevitably it ought to be in a great sense missional. In the hearing of the nations, it ought to be authentic and followed by a testimony of why Yahweh is worth of praise, and to be praised always. For in fact, the God we praise, is a God of mission. A Hallelujah ought then to be whole, authentic and continuous. But what about, my own and your Hallelujah – what does it look like before the Lord? Is it like what Cohen describes at the beginning, one that pleases the Lord? Or it has been broken by our life experiences and decisions. Like the prophet Isaiah acknowledges of himself,15 I am compelled to deem my own Hallelujah broken, and unworthy, unless my heart and lips are touched and transformed by the one to whom I raise the praise – Hallelujah!