In October 1973, singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen was hating his life. He struggled with depression.  He struggled with drugs like acid and LSD. He had had a child with a woman to whom he was not married, and he struggled with monogamy.  His creativity was stymied. He couldn’t write. He couldn’t find joy in performing.  At 39 he felt he was past his prime, that he should retire. In his own words, that he should “shut up.”

As Leonard Cohen was in the throes of his mid-life crisis, Israel was attacked on Yom Kippur, October 6, 1973. Israel was unprepared for this war. The initial weeks were brutal. Israel’s air force, so dominant six years earlier, was dramatically undermined by new Russian anti-aircraft missiles. Israeli ground troops suffered horrendous casualties.

These two stories—Leonard Cohen’s personal crisis, and Israel’s national crisis—came together because somehow, in the midst of the war, Leonard Cohen decided to go to Israel. The day he arrived, he went to a Tel Aviv café to ponder his next steps. Just then, a group of Israeli singers walked by. One of the singers, named Ilana Rovina, recognized him. Are you Leonard Cohen? I am. What are you doing in Israel? I don’t know, I’m not sure, but I think I will go to a kibbutz. Why don’t you join us? We are going to the Sinai to sing to the fighters. We’d love you to join us. 

I don’t have a guitar.