Leonard Cohen’s Jewish Theodicy: We Are Waiting for Godot, But It Is We Who May Never Arrive

Abstract:The work of Leonard Cohen, called the “black romantic” by Stephen Scobie, has been explored for its sex, politics, darkness, and struggle with faith. Cohen’s imagery has also been widely interrogated in critical and popular studies. The present article builds on this literature to explore a consistent theology and theodicy in Cohen’s writings. The theology is grounded in the covenant of Cohen’s Jewish tradition. It is Cohen’s reckoning with humanity’s failure to act covenantally with God and persons—though we are made as covenantal creatures, dependent on these bonds to survive and flourish. The easy theodicy says our suffering is self-inflicted: a fallen humanity breaks covenant for the possibility of gain and so injures itself. Cohen saw the tougher reality of many theodical inquiries: if we wound ourselves, the God who made us, made us so. We breach covenant because breaching is easy for us. Thus, the question and anguish that prod much of Cohen’s work is not only “Why does humanity fail covenant?” but also “Why did an omnipotent God create humanity so prone to fail it?” The article begins with a discussion of covenant in the Jewish tradition. Cohen’s theodicy is then traced through his verse. Attention is given to several topoi, including the use of doubled images to refer at once to divine and human persons; Cohen’s use of Jewish and Christian imagery; and theodicy as a way to understand Cohen’s relations with women.