So Long, Leonard Cohen—Holy Sinner, Poet, Friend - The Daily Beast

"The poet laureate of longing dies at age 82, just three weeks after releasing one of the best albums of his career."

"Nor, of course, was Cohen’s Jewishness of the pious kind. It’s not that Cohen did or didn’t believe in God, the afterlife, and all the rest. On an intellectual level, of course he did not. But like the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber said, if we are speaking of God in the third person, I do not believe in God; but if we are speaking directly, in the second person—as You, then I do. That is to say, true religion isn’t prose, telling us things about the world, but poetry, expressing human longings and fears."

So Long, Leonard Cohen—Holy Sinner, Poet, Friend - The Daily Beast