Who by Fire by Matti Friedman 196 pg 2022

  How Leonard Cohens music developed as a result of his experience in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in Israel.   27/10/24

Leonard Cohen had played at the Wight Festival which  had an audience greater than that of Woodstock.  He was 39 and the press had reported news of his retirement as he saw himself as a has-been. He also saw himself as a great pacifist but his songs So Long Marianne and Suzanne were well known.

It is not necessary to know about Spain's civil war to know about Picasso's Guernica.  People don't realize that Beethoven 5th Symphony was composed amid the Napoleonic Wars. Leonard Cohen concert tour of Israel during the 1973 war, left hardly any recordings, but has lived on in history by word of mouth.  That terrible month of October 1973 has become linked with Leonard Cohen. The war is sometimes referred to as the War Of Atonement.

Israel Airforce that was supposed to win the war, was instead crippled by new Soviet missiles. There were 2,600 fatalities and Israel became a different country afterwards. The country became less confident , less united and more introspective after the war.  One of the oddest aspect about this tour was that Leonard never mentioned it afterwards. What made this tour exceptional was the audiences. He played for them knowing his music might be the last thing they heard. Most of the soldiers did not speak English but poetry can communicate before it is understood.

Many Israelis at the time, if asked where are your parents from replied the "holocaust."

The work of the poetess Rachel of the old pioneers of the 1920 and died of tuberculosis. Her poetry was much loved even though it was sad and cynical.

Yom Kippur fell on October 5th in 1973 on that day a prayer  is said "who by water and who by fire" The symbolism is violent and memorable and we remember the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Nobody  heard the Naila service of the story of Jonah that concluded the service as if it lasted for another 3 weeks.

At Sharm el Sheik there were reports that the radar station and its soldiers had been captured by Egyptian commandoes. The Egyptians had rocketed the base but no enemy soldiers had arrived only Israeli soldiers sent to recapture it had fought with Israeli's there till they realized. Nobody talked about this for the next 30 years.

  Aged 13 Leonard a Cohen had his barmitvah under the Hebrew name of the priest Eliezer. (in Hebrew = God Helps)

 Leonard Cohen had been living on the island of Hydra. He had learned Greek and had written a novel there. He had escaped Montreal the London. He had be busy escaping and was attracted to the cheap living and warm weather and had a girlfriend Suzanne and his first kid a son Adam. Another  Suzanne was a dancer in Montreal. He had spent years in a Buddist Monestary at Mt Baldy in California.  "He though that the only culture worth anything came from loyalty to a language , group , place. Only Nationalism produces art" 

 When the war broke out it was not easy to reach Israel as many Israelis were trying to get home to their reserve units. There were priority list to serve in tanks and hospitals.  Leonard had thought he would volunteer to work on a kibbutz where help was needed. Many volunteers had done so in 1967 when soldiers were called to the front.

He considered Israel his myth home and arrived in Tel Aviv a small Mediterranean City founded in 1909. Almost everybody over 30 had escaped Europe or the Arab world. Writers and artist hung out at the Cafes Casit , California or Pinati. 

1972  he had played in Israel after a troubled touring year and it hadn't gone well for him.

Now in Tel Aviv he met Matti Kaspi considered one of Israel's best musicians at the time who wanted him to come and sing to the troops but Leonard felt his songs were too melancholy and would get soldiers depressed.

The music in Israel at the time was accordion heave and the 1973 war killed that genre. In 1948 Shoshana Damari's "Last Battle" was a hit it was about the Faluja Pocket and was the last battle for 7 soldiers who were killed.

The airforce was hemorrhaging planes and pilots at a shocking rate and this was hidden from the public.  None of the artists knew how bad things were and what they were getting themselves into.

Israeli songs had come from the same source as her weapons. So when weapons came from the Czechs the inspiration of communist and Russian tunes came. Later all the artist that mattered were visiting Paris and Piaf and Moustaki songs came while Israel got French Mirages. The French chose the Arabs over the Jews and weapons started coming from America with Rock and Roll.Chocolate Menta , Mastic was a 3 women group in very prominent at this time.

"I asked my father to change my name"  Leonard just wrote this song and was trying it out on an audience, many of whom had changed Jewish names associated with the Diaspora and helplessness to new Hebrew ones.  Matti Caspi's father from Serbia's name was Agrentero (silver) "Lover lover lover come back to me"  is more like a prayer or in Song of Songs. "And Shield against the enemy" is also like a prayer invoking a shield is what a Cohen does.

Leonard's mother was a native Russian speaker, and must have sung to him some Russian songs.

A year of 2 later when this song was released the words were changed and the part identifying with Israel was gone. On stage he would tell the audience that the song was for both sides.

 In the Vietnam war the songs the  American troops loved were about loneliness and yearning.  Johnny Cash and his wife were in Vietnam in 1969 even though the war was so unpopular.

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was attracting  Jews to Judaism in the 70s from hippy, drug  taking types. Was Leonard coming back to his tribe?

Troops were being taken to the Sinai on DC 3 Dakotas and the entertainers went with them. Where even though the public had not been informed of the army's failure it was clear from here. None of Leonard's notes indicate if he knew where he was, just "the dessert".  Raising  morale to soldiers that had seen true and awful things about the world.

The song Susanne was played the most as  everyone  knew it, as it was circulating in Hebrew by Gidi Koren, but later on the Hebrew version was forgotten. That Leonard slept on the floor and ate  combat rations with everyone else meant a lot to the troops.

Some soldiers after the war felt a sort of emptiness went back to old time religion including Uri Zohar a very famous actor, singer , comedian. Yom Kippur day is the only day of the year that Israel roads are empty and it allowed the army to deploy quickly.

Leonard said I sing serious songs on stage because I couldn't do it any other way. Now a serious person who has seen war.  

In 1948 at Israel's birth when soldiers fought they thought there would  be one war only  and that's it. Soldiers in war don't want to hear songs about war or battle anthem. Leonard's songs were precisely what was called for under the circumstances, and it came across in a language they didn't understand. Soldiers aren't mental patients but sometimes are not far from that. Sleep is the only way to block out what is going on.

Danny Kaye and the French Jewish singer Enrico Marcias were far more famous than Leonard.

Father and son's were both fighting. Some who fought in 1948 were still fighting. They crossed the Suez into Africa and were near a base called Fa'id.  Yaffa Yarkoni famous for ballads from 1948 was there on the front line.

An Egyptian plane was shot down and the pilot was handed over to the interrogators and the parachute was taken to be used as a tent. The band was now flown across to Africa in a helicopter. Nobody remember that he arrived but he was just there. The guitar case had chalked on it Matti as it was Matti Caspi's. Leonard arrived in Israel without a guitar.

Israel was feeling isolated as Europe would not allow over flights of weapons. Leonard arrived in Sharm el Sheik on 20 Oct mentioned in a postcard sent by Ruti.

 Lu Yehi (would that it were)by Noami Shemer an anthem and loved song of the war , almost a prayer. This song gave people the right to cry. It was based on Let it be a song by Paul McCartney.

Leonard Cohens songs were an acquired taste in America almost to the end of his life however in France they were popular.

Once the fighting ended and the politicians took over Leonard said "I'm out" and he rarely mentioned the war afterwards. Attitudes to Israel were changing. Winning which Israel had done at great cost makes people less sympathetic. A year later Leonard  had a 2nd son with Suzanne name Lorca.

Nathan Cohen fought in the Great War and was one of the first Jews to become an officer he died when his son Leonard was 9

After  1973 Israel's music seen went in Leonard's direction away from the collective to the individual soul.  Leonard wrote other albums inspired by his experience in 1974  New Skin for old Ceremomy. Later Halaluyah became one of the most widely song songs. The Yom Kippur War is a turning point and a major event in the life of Leonard Cohen.

2009 Leonard found that his manager had stolen his saving and did a tour where he found he had reached fame and filled stadiums around the world. By then Israel had abandoned the kibbutz and collective ideal and were more like Cohen. They had always considered him a kind of Israeli. Tickets for his show in Tel Aviv were sold out on line in minutes and the stadium of 50, 000 was filled. To be politically correct he announced a concert in Ramallah but this fell away when there were calls to boycott it.

This concert went down as one of the best ever held. Many of the audience remembered him from the war. In the encore he raised his hands parted his finger and said the 15 words in  Hebrew of Birkat ha Cohanim. (A prayer that only Cohens "priests" say)

Today sometimes the prayer "Who by Water" is sang in synagogues to Leonard's Tune.

1934 to 2016. Died aged 82 and was buried with his family in Montreal. In retrospect he was considered a writer of Religious songs.