New Heaven, New Earth (Leonard Cohen meets Isaiah)

Isaiah 65: 15-17

“I asked my father

I said, "Father, change my name

The one I'm using now it's covered up

With fear and filth and cowardice and shame."

Yes and lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover, lover

Come back to me

"I never turned aside," he said

"I never walked away

It was you who built the temple

It was you who covered up my face."

Leonard Cohen’s famous song ‘Lover’ is a heartbroken prayer to the god he called lover, and it was composed in the middle of a war zone in 1973.  Cohen, in the midst of a marital break-up, traveled to Israel to perform in front of IDF soldiers in the Sinai desert, as the devastating Yom Kippur war was raging. Matti Friedman’s excellent book Who By Fire tells this moving story in both Cohen’s life and Israel’s history. 

Cohen’s dialogue between the seeker and his lover/god echoes some key themes from today’s chapter, as Isaiah, another Hebraic poet who was facing a national crisis, 2700 years earlier. 

Cohen’s crisis became a request for a new name and identity -- a sentiment and desire for a fresh start that corresponds to Isaiah’s aspirations in today’s chapter, just before his book ends.  Both poets ponder what or who can survive the war, how can renewal of the relationship, of trust,  be ever possible. 

Isaiah looks around and points a finger at the people, lost in their idol worship and petty squabbles, animosities and fears. He warns them that a price will be paid for being oblivious to justice and to the true way to honor the divine --- but he also makes a distinction between those who are following the path and will survive - and those who don’t and won’t. 

Imagine a cluster of grapes, he says to the people of Jerusalem -- maybe he even holds one up as he performs this prophecy: 

כֹּ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֗ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יִמָּצֵ֤א הַתִּירוֹשׁ֙ בָּֽאֶשְׁכּ֔וֹל וְאָמַר֙ אַל־תַּשְׁחִיתֵ֔הוּ כִּ֥י בְרָכָ֖ה בּ֑וֹ כֵּ֤ן אֶֽעֱשֶׂה֙ לְמַ֣עַן עֲבָדַ֔י לְבִלְתִּ֖י הַֽשְׁחִ֥ית הַכֹּֽל׃

“YHWH spoke: 

Just as when  new grapes are in the cluster,

One says, “Don’t destroy it; there’s good in it,”

So will I do for the sake of My servants,

And not destroy everything.”

Isaiah 65:8

So who  will survive and who will flourish? The good grapes who will live on, says Isaiah, will be the beneficiaries of a new identity that will transcend the labels of the past, no longer useful. He may be offering a radical rebranding here --it’s unclear what identity he proposes to re-imagine but the powerful invitation here is to let the past go and invite in a new way of being, better, in the world. In some way Isaiah suggests a new name for the nation - a new beginning: 

וְהִנַּחְתֶּ֨ם שִׁמְכֶ֤ם לִשְׁבוּעָה֙ לִבְחִירַ֔י וֶהֱמִֽיתְךָ֖ אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱהֹוִ֑ה וְלַעֲבָדָ֥יו יִקְרָ֖א שֵׁ֥ם אַחֵֽר׃

You shall leave behind a name

By which My chosen ones shall curse:

“So may our Sovereign GOD slay you!”

But My servants shall be given a different name.

Isaiah 65:15

But it isn’t just a new national name and identity that will be the gift of the future, he says. The Divine will restart everything -- a new creation, a recreation of the original plan: 

כִּֽי־הִנְנִ֥י בוֹרֵ֛א שָׁמַ֥יִם חֲדָשִׁ֖ים וָאָ֣רֶץ חֲדָשָׁ֑ה וְלֹ֤א תִזָּכַ֙רְנָה֙ הָרִ֣אשֹׁנ֔וֹת וְלֹ֥א תַעֲלֶ֖ינָה עַל־לֵֽב׃

For behold! I am creating

A new heaven and a new earth;

The former things shall not be remembered,

They shall never come to mind.

Isaiah 65:16-17

This bold vision echoes the original creation of the world - the hopeful brand new Garden of Eden in Genesis, as well as the first Sabbath of the world. And as this book begins to end it also echoes one of his most famous early chapters - the utopian vision of all animals at peace together, in harmony and bliss. Maybe he’s even winking at the big bad wolf from the little red riding hood tale, now living in harmony with the lamb and everybody else, no teeth in sight:

זְאֵ֨ב וְטָלֶ֜ה יִרְע֣וּ כְאֶחָ֗ד וְאַרְיֵה֙ כַּבָּקָ֣ר יֹאכַל־תֶּ֔בֶן וְנָחָ֖שׁ עָפָ֣ר לַחְמ֑וֹ לֹֽא־יָרֵ֧עוּ וְלֹֽא־יַשְׁחִ֛יתוּ בְּכׇל־הַ֥ר קׇדְשִׁ֖י אָמַ֥ר יְהֹוָֽה׃    

“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together,

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

And the serpent’s food shall be earth.

In all My sacred mount

Nothing evil or vile shall be done

—spoke YHWH.”

Isaiah 65:25

Leonard Cohen’s visions of a world post war included many wistful verses while fully aware of how dark and darker the human condition can get. The desire for new name and fresh start even from the midst of madness echoes still - for Isaish, for us, 50 years after the Yom Kippur war and almost 3 millennia after the school of Isaiah -  what would it be like for us to imagine a new identity, new name, new and better way of being human on this earth? 

The prophets stand, along with poets, in this gap between the ancient and the new, what is and what if, singing to us songs of honest heartbreak and heartfelt hopes -- don’t stop believing in what’s possible, for good. 

One more hopeful Isaiah chapter to go.

Image: Leonard Cohen, 1973. Photo by Uri Dan, the Farkash Gallery

TOMORROW: Goodbye Isaiah, Hello Jeremiah

OUR NEXT BELOW THE BIBLE BELT ZOOM TALK:

Please join me on Zoom for our next Monthly Conversation, as we wrap up the Book of Isaiah, venture into Jeremiah’s world and explore what these ancient prophets have to offer our inner and political lives - just in time for a new Jewish year and continued political challenges - everywhere. 

Join us on Thursday, August 17th 2023, at 1pm ET.

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