prismatic-bell:

stoneandbloodandwater:

fromchaostocosmos:

fromchaostocosmos:

cutecreative:

hymnsofheresy:

hachama:

hymnsofheresy:

ravenclaw-burning:

hymnsofheresy:

when christian artists change the line in hallelujah from “maybe there’s a God above” to “I know that there’s a God above” >:c

#idk why i’m so unreasonably angry#maybe cuz it’s my fav line

it’s also because Leonard COHEN (!) was Jewish and this is a quintessentially Jewish line, and changing it to that level of Annoying Certainty is stripping it of its Jewish meaning and imbuing it with that particularly American smug evangelical Christian attitude that makes me tired, so very tired

THAT IS EXACTLY WHY

I don’t think I’ve heard any cover artist sing my favorite verses

You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

um woah

I will always hit the reblog button so hard for Hallelujah but ESPECIALLY mentions of the elusive final verses which are just about my favorite lyrics ever. Why do people always omit the best part of the song??

In Yiddish

In Hebrew

In Ladino

Yeah, I wonder why the verses that reference specific Jewish mystical and chassidic concepts that aren’t readily understood by American “I love Jews, you know, Jesus was Jewish!” Christians never get any airtime. Funny that.

You say I took the name in vain
I don’t even know the name
But if I did, well really, what’s it to you?
There’s a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn’t matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

These are specifically about Chassidic Jewish theories of the holy language, how each letter and combination of letters in Hebrew contains the essence of the divine spark and if used correctly, can unlock or uncover the divine spark in the mundane material word. And of course, there are secret names of God which, when spoken by any ordinary human would kill them, but if you are worthy and holy and righteous can be used to perform miracles or even to behold the glory of God face-to-face. The words themselves have power. Orthodox Jews often won’t even pronounce the word “hallelujah” in it’s entirety in conversation, because the “yah” sound at the end is a True Name of God (there are hundreds, supposedly) and thus too holy to say outside of prayer.

None of this is to mention how David’s sin in sleeping with Batshevah (the subject of much of the song, with a brief deviation to Shimshon and Delilah) is considered the turning point in the Tanach that ultimately dooms the Davidic line at the cosmological level and thus dooms Jewish sovereignty and independence altogether. From a Christian perspective this led to Jesus, the King of Kings, and that’s all very well and good for them, but for the Jews, the Davidic line never returned and is the central tragedy of the total arc of the Torah. Like, our Bible doesn’t have a happy ending? And that’s what this song is about? There’s no Grace – you just have to sit with the sin and its consequence.

Of course, Cohen is referencing all of this ironically, and personalizing these very high-level religious concepts. Like the point of this song is that Cohen, the songwriter, is identifying with David, the psalmist, and identifying his own sins with David’s. The ache that you hear in this song is that the two thousand year exile that resulted from one wrong night of passion and Cohen feels that the pain he has caused to his lover is of equally monumental infamy. Basically, in a certain light, the whole of Psalms is a vain effort for David to atone for his sin and I think Cohen was writing this song in wonderment that David could eternally praise the God who would not forgive him and would force him and his people into exile. But he ultimately gets how you have to surrender to the inexorable force of God in the face of your own inadequacies and how to surrender is to worship and to worship is to praise – hence, Hallelujah. You can either do the right thing and worship God from the start, or you can fuck up, be punished, and thus be forced to beg for His forgiveness. It’s the terrible inevitability of praise that’s driving him mad.

Like honestly, I identify with this song so strongly as an off-the-derech Jew, I sometimes wonder what Christians can possibly hear in this song, as it speaks so specifically to the sadomasochistic relationship that a lapsed Jew has with their God. It’s such a different song from a Christian theological perspective it’s almost unrecognizable, man. This song continues to be a wonder of postmodern Jewish theology and sexuality from start to finish. Don’t let anyone give you any “Judeo-Christian” narishkeit. This is a Jewish song.

(Sorry about the wild tangent it’s just 2AM and I love this song so dang much, you guys.)

You know the change that drives me fucking bonkers? When Christian artists change “remember when I moved in you/the holy dark was moving too” to “holy dove,” which is a Christian thing THEY CLEARLY DIDN’T THINK ABOUT. Because if they had, they’d realize changing it to “holy dove” basically changes the line to “and then you got rawed by me and also Jesus.”

Sex in Judaism is sacred AND GOOD. It’s a gift from G-d. The line “every breath we drew was Hallelujah” does not make sense in the context of Christianity’s attitude toward sex.

theubergrump:

me at 14: “None of my characters are self-inserts! I’ve worked really hard to make them unique and interesting. I hate Mary Sues.”

me now: “they’re all self-inserts. every single one of them. a hundred various versions of me. I’m gonna rub my grubby hands all over every property I enjoy. are you going to stop me? no. you can’t”

curlicuecal:

on Steven Universe and how to love

Thinking about that SU episode where Jamie got a crush on Garnet and she wound up giving the speech about how love at first sight isn’t a thing, love takes time and work and you can’t really love someone you don’t even know.

I remember there was a subset of the fandom who got really sarcastic about Garnet, aka Ruby and Sapphire, lecturing anyone about love at first sight. Because they fell into a perfect relationship the first time they met, right?

Except, no. Further episodes exploring their history and relationship have made it clear that their relationship *has* taken time and hard work, and has been far from a ‘everything worked perfectly at first sight’ fairy tale. Garnet’s relationship was deeper and more complex than it appeared, except we didn’t know because we didn’t really know Garnet yet. We’d barely met her.

And I think this is fascinating as an overall theme of the series:

People are universally more complicated than you can work out without getting to know them, and anytime we’ve assumed we understood everything about a character and their motivations from our first impressions we’ve always been proven wrong.

Literally every character.

Do you remember when Greg Universe seemed like a slacker hands-off dad? When Peridot was a cruel torturer certain to betray the gems at first opportunity? When Lars’ and Sadie’s dynamic was obviously one-sided and toxic rather than a complicated but sincere long-standing friendship? When we thought we understood Yellow Diamond’s motivations? When Rose’s history was the clearcut story of the peasant hero who loved everyone, rather than a runaway royal trying to learn how to love anyone?

You have to get to know people before you can honestly love them. Or hate them. You don’t know who someone is from a glance.