Matti Friedman on Leonard Cohen and the Yom Kippur War

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Russ Roberts and Mati Friedman discuss Friedman’s book on Leonard Cohen’s unexpected 1973 visit to the Yom Kippur War front in Sinai, where he performed for exhausted Israeli soldiers. The episode ties Cohen’s artistic crisis to Israel’s national trauma, exploring war, tribe, Jewish identity, and how the conflict helped restore Cohen’s creativity while also deepening Israel’s shift away from collectivist idealism.

Main Topics: Leonard Cohen’s 1973 Sinai visit: Cohen arrives in Israel during the Yom Kippur War without a clear plan, is recruited to perform for soldiers near the front, and gives improvised concerts under extreme wartime conditions. The Yom Kippur War as Israeli trauma: The transcript recounts the surprise attack, early Israeli failures, reserve mobilization, and the war’s role as a turning point in Israeli history and psychology. Tribe, brotherhood, and universalism: The conversation centers on Cohen’s pull between tribal solidarity with Israelis and his broader universalist/artistic instincts, especially after he feels relief that wounded soldiers are Egyptian. Cohen’s creative crisis and renewal: Friedman argues that Cohen’s wartime experience helped break his artistic dead end and restored his faith in songwriting, leading to renewed output after the war. Israeli society and reserve military culture: Roberts and Friedman explain how Israel’s reserve system mobilizes ordinary civilians, making wartime participation communal and immediate in a way foreign listeners may not grasp. Postwar Israeli political and cultural change: The war discredited the founding Labour/kibbutz leadership and accelerated Israel’s move toward a more individualistic, less utopian society.

Key Arguments: Cohen came to Israel during the war not as a planned performer but as a man in personal and creative crisis looking for meaning and escape. The concerts were extraordinary because they were intimate, improvised, and potentially life-defining for soldiers who could have died soon after hearing him. The Yom Kippur War was not just a military event but a psychological rupture that ended Israel’s era of overconfidence and communal idealism. Cohen’s response to war combined genuine solidarity with Jews/ישראלים and an artist’s resistance to tribal identification; he wanted his work to speak universally. The war appears to have revived Cohen’s creative drive, culminating in New Skin for the Old Ceremony and later masterpieces. Israel’s reserve-army structure and social intimacy made the mobilization and Cohen’s wartime audience fundamentally different from civilian entertainment in other countries. The war’s trauma helped push Israel away from kibbutz-centered collectivism toward a more individualistic, politically different society.

Data Points: Year of war: 1973 - The Yom Kippur War, the setting for Cohen’s Sinai visit, began on October 6, 1973. Age of Leonard Cohen: 39 - Cohen was 39 during the war and described as being at a personal and professional dead end. Israeli population: Barely 3 million - Approximate size of Israel at the time of the Yom Kippur War. War duration: 3 weeks - Roberts notes the war lasted about three weeks before disengagement and diplomacy followed. Israeli military fatalities: About 2,500-2,600 - Approximate Israeli deaths in the Yom Kippur War discussed as a devastating national loss. Length of Cohen manuscript: 45 pages - Friedman found an unpublished typed manuscript in McMaster University Library describing Cohen’s state immediately after the war. Album released after the war: New Skin for the Old Ceremony - Released a few months after the war and cited as evidence of Cohen’s artistic revival. First child: 1-year-old son named Adam - Cohen had a young son when he traveled to Israel. Performances: Dozens, but unknown exact number - Friedman says there was no military archive list and the concerts had to be reconstructed from memory and photos.

Pivotal Quotes: "who by water and who by fire" — Russ Roberts: Explaining the central Yom Kippur prayer that frames the book’s title and war setting. "I went down to the desert to help my brothers fight." — Mati Friedman: Describing the draft line Cohen wrote and later crossed out of the song 'Lover, Lover, Lover.' "I don't write the songs." — Mati Friedman: Cohen’s response to a friend who asked for a less dark song, highlighting his view of art as something that comes from beyond conscious control.

Implications: The episode shows how war can reshape art, identity, and national culture: Cohen’s Sinai experience revived his career, while Israel’s 1973 trauma helped remake the country’s politics and social ethos. It also suggests that meaningful art often emerges from conflict, ambiguity, and competing loyalties.