Why “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen Isn’t Really Religious?

Brief Overview

• Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” uses the word hallelujah as its main hook, but the song explores themes of human sexuality, heartbreak, and doubt rather than spiritual praise or thanksgiving to God.
• The song contains multiple explicit references to sexual encounters and physical relationships that contrast sharply with the traditional meaning of hallelujah as an expression of divine praise.
• Cohen structured the song to present hallelujah as something humans say in moments of both physical pleasure and profound disappointment, rather than as a word reserved for worship.
• The lyrics repeatedly connect hallelujah to broken relationships and unfulfilled desires, suggesting that human love and connection are hollow without genuine spiritual meaning.
• Cohen himself described the song as exploring the relationship between the physical and spiritual, showing how the sacred word becomes something less meaningful when applied to earthly struggles.
• The song’s popularity has led many people to hear only the word hallelujah and assume the song is religious, when in fact it presents a deeply skeptical view of whether human experiences merit such praise.

The Traditional Meaning of Hallelujah

The word hallelujah comes directly from Hebrew and means “praise Yahweh” or “praise the Lord.” This expression appears throughout the Bible, particularly in the Psalms, where it serves as a call to worship and thanksgiving (CCC 2796). In Jewish and Christian tradition, hallelujah represents the highest form of praise directed toward God, especially in moments of spiritual joy or recognition of God’s power and majesty. The word carries centuries of religious weight and has been used in worship settings, liturgy, and prayer for thousands of years. When Christians or Jews say hallelujah, they make a deliberate choice to acknowledge God’s existence and goodness. The term functions as both a greeting and a spiritual affirmation, signaling that the speaker recognizes something transcendent and worthy of praise. In the Catholic tradition specifically, hallelujah appears in the liturgy and in hymns that celebrate the resurrection and God’s salvation. The word holds such sacred significance that its use outside religious contexts can seem jarring or inappropriate to believers who understand its deep spiritual meaning. When Leonard Cohen chose this word for his song title and refrain, he deliberately selected a term loaded with religious meaning, which makes his use of it particularly striking given what the song actually explores.

Cohen’s Explicit Content and Sexual References

Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” contains numerous references to sexual encounters and physical intimacy that establish a stark contrast to the word’s sacred meaning. The song describes specific moments of sexual connection between the narrator and another person, treating these moments as occasions worthy of saying hallelujah. Cohen uses the refrain to suggest that human physical pleasure might inspire the same kind of praise one would direct toward God, yet this comparison seems ironic rather than sincere. The lyrics reference positions and physical acts without censoring or softening the language, making the sexual content unmistakable to any listener who pays close attention to the words. This explicit content creates an intentional tension between the sacred word and profane subject matter. Cohen does not appear embarrassed by the sexual references but rather places them front and center, forcing listeners to confront the juxtaposition. The song suggests that people say hallelujah in response to physical pleasure, yet this usage seems hollow when compared to its true spiritual meaning. By connecting hallelujah to moments of sexual satisfaction, Cohen challenges the listener to consider whether such moments truly deserve such elevated language. The vulgarity of the subject matter, when paired with the sacred word, creates cognitive dissonance that appears intentional on Cohen’s part. This jarring combination suggests that Cohen wants to provoke reflection on what actually merits praise and worship in human life.

The Theme of Broken Relationships and Disappointment

While the song begins with references to physical intimacy, it quickly shifts focus to themes of broken relationships, unrequited love, and profound disappointment. The narrator reflects on a failed connection with another person, describing moments of tenderness alongside moments of rejection and pain. Cohen uses hallelujah not just as a word sung during moments of physical pleasure but also as a response to heartbreak and confusion. This expansion of the word’s usage suggests that people speak it in moments of both ecstasy and despair, which dilutes its meaning considerably. The song presents hallelujah as something humans say when they do not know what else to say, when their emotions overwhelm their ability to speak clearly. The lyrics convey a sense of longing for connection that remains unfulfilled, suggesting that the relationship described in the song does not lead to lasting joy or spiritual growth. Cohen portrays the narrator as someone searching for meaning through human connection but finding that such connection cannot ultimately satisfy. The repeated use of hallelujah becomes increasingly ironic as the song progresses, since the circumstances the narrator describes do not seem to warrant genuine praise. The broken relationship and the pain associated with failed intimacy suggest that hallelujah here functions as a coping mechanism rather than authentic worship. By connecting hallelujah to such disappointment, Cohen implies that people use the word carelessly when facing situations that do not actually merit spiritual affirmation.

Cohen’s Ambivalent Spiritual Perspective

Leonard Cohen himself held a complicated relationship with spirituality and religious belief throughout his life. He studied Buddhism extensively and lived in a Buddhist monastery for years, yet he was born Jewish and maintained connections to Jewish tradition and theology. Cohen did not present himself as a conventional believer in any single tradition, but rather as someone interested in spiritual questions without claiming to have definitive answers. His spiritual ambivalence appears throughout his work, including in “Hallelujah,” where he seems to question whether human experience justifies the language of praise. Cohen was deeply interested in the tension between the physical and spiritual realms, exploring how human desires and bodily experiences relate to transcendent meaning. The song appears to emerge from this tension, presenting hallelujah as a word that humans use in their confusion about what actually connects them to something greater than themselves. Cohen did not write “Hallelujah” as a mockery of faith, but rather as an honest exploration of someone struggling to find spiritual meaning in the midst of earthly desires and disappointments. His biography and interviews reveal that he took spiritual matters seriously, even when expressing skepticism about conventional religious practice. The song reflects Cohen’s genuine uncertainty about whether human relationships and sexual experiences can bridge the gap between the physical and divine. This ambivalence means the song is not anti-religious but rather presents religion as something more complex than simple praise and acceptance.

The Song’s Structure and Poetic Technique

Cohen constructed “Hallelujah” in a way that uses the repeated refrain to create ironic commentary on the song’s content and themes. The refrain remains constant throughout the song, but the verses that precede it change dramatically in tone and subject matter. This structural choice means that listeners hear hallelujah attached to descriptions of sexual pleasure, then to expressions of doubt, then to acknowledgment of pain, and finally to tentative spiritual searching. The repetition of the same word in such varied contexts suggests that the word loses specificity and power through overuse. Cohen’s poetic technique relies heavily on this ironic juxtaposition, where the sacred and profane sit in uncomfortable proximity. The song does not follow a traditional narrative arc but rather presents fragments of experience and reflection without resolving them into a coherent spiritual statement. This fragmented structure mirrors the way human experience often feels incomplete and contradictory, without clear answers about meaning or purpose. Cohen’s use of imagery is specific and concrete rather than abstract, which makes the sexual content and emotional vulnerability impossible to ignore or minimize. The song refuses to separate the body from the spirit or to pretend that physical desire does not matter in human life. Rather, Cohen insists that listeners confront the coexistence of bodily desire and spiritual longing as central features of human existence. This structural and poetic approach reveals that Cohen was not careless in his word choice but rather deliberately constructed the song to make listeners uncomfortable.

Reinterpretations Through Cover Versions

Numerous artists have covered “Hallelujah” since Cohen wrote it, and many of these versions transform the song’s meaning in significant ways. Some cover versions emphasize the spiritual or romantic elements while downplaying or omitting the sexual content, effectively changing the song’s overall message. Artists such as Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright created interpretations that many listeners associate primarily with emotion and perhaps with spirituality, even though they retained Cohen’s original lyrics. The widespread coverage of “Hallelujah” in movies, television shows, and religious contexts has created a false impression that the song is fundamentally religious. Many people encounter the song through these recontextualized versions without ever hearing Cohen’s original vision. Churches and religious organizations have sometimes used “Hallelujah” as if it were a standard praise song, further obscuring Cohen’s actual intent and content. This phenomenon reveals how a song’s meaning can shift based on context and performance, independent of the songwriter’s original purpose. Listeners who know the song only through certain cover versions might genuinely believe it to be a spiritual affirmation rather than a complex exploration of doubt and desire. The reinterpretations do not make the original song religious, but they demonstrate how cultural reception can distort a work’s meaning. Cohen himself expressed opinions about how different artists approached the song, sometimes approving of versions that changed its emphasis significantly. The gap between Cohen’s original vision and the popular understanding of the song shows how art can be reshaped through performance and presentation.

The Role of Biblical Imagery Without Biblical Meaning

Cohen throughout “Hallelujah” references biblical or spiritual imagery, such as references to King David and to the complexity of faith, without using this imagery to affirm traditional religious belief. The mention of David playing music to please the Lord appears in the song, but Cohen frames this reference in a way that emphasizes David’s human complexity rather than his spiritual purity. David, as presented in the Bible, was a flawed human being who committed terrible sins yet maintained faith in God and was called a man after God’s own heart. Cohen seems interested in the contradiction between David’s status as a great king and his human failings. The song uses biblical reference without accepting the biblical resolution to human moral complexity. Cohen invokes spiritual concepts and figures but does not use them to point toward transcendent meaning or redemption. Instead, he uses them to highlight the gap between human aspiration and achievement, between what we claim to believe and what we actually do. This approach differs sharply from how religious artists typically employ biblical references, which is to reinforce faith and spiritual understanding. Cohen’s use of biblical imagery functions more as a literary technique than as an endorsement of the spiritual truths those references represent. The song refuses to offer the comfort that religious faith might provide, instead maintaining its focus on human experience and its contradictions. By referencing David without affirming David’s faith, Cohen suggests that even figures celebrated in scripture struggled with the very questions his song addresses. This selective use of biblical imagery without biblical conviction is crucial to understanding why “Hallelujah” is not really religious despite its surface appearance.

What Makes a Song Truly Religious

A genuinely religious song typically affirms certain spiritual truths and invites the listener to share in faith or spiritual understanding with the artist. Religious music throughout Christian and Jewish tradition has functioned to deepen faith, to express joy in salvation, to confess belief, or to ask God for help in times of need. The lyrics of truly religious songs make claims about God’s nature, God’s relationship with humans, or the proper response to God’s presence and action in the world. Religious songs often express certainty or at least serious commitment to spiritual realities, even when those songs also acknowledge doubt or struggle as part of faith. Many genuinely religious songs have been written by artists who explored difficult questions about faith while ultimately affirming their belief in God and God’s goodness. Songs like traditional hymns or contemporary Christian music typically move toward spiritual resolution or affirmation by their conclusion. A song is religious if it functions as a tool for prayer, praise, worship, or spiritual growth, regardless of its musical style or its willingness to acknowledge human complexity. Religious songs do not require perfect certainty or the absence of doubt, but they do require some form of commitment to spiritual truth or some affirmation of transcendent meaning. Cohen’s “Hallelujah” does not meet these criteria because it does not affirm spiritual truths or invite the listener to share in faith with the artist. Instead, the song presents human experience in all its contradiction and confusion without resolving those contradictions into spiritual affirmation. The repeated use of hallelujah in the song functions as ironic commentary rather than as genuine praise or worship.

The Contrast Between Hope and Despair

Throughout “Hallelujah,” Cohen moves between moments of hope and moments of deep despair without settling on either as the final word. The song begins with moments of connection and pleasure that seem to offer hope for genuine human fulfillment and happiness. However, these moments of hope are quickly undercut by acknowledgment of the relationship’s failure and the pain that follows. Cohen refuses to allow the listener to rest in the hope that physical connection offers or to believe that human love alone solves the question of meaning. Yet he also refuses to allow complete despair to dominate the song’s emotional landscape. This movement between hope and despair continues throughout the song without resolution, suggesting that human life exists in this ongoing tension. The refrain of hallelujah serves as a kind of response to both states, as if to say that humans praise and lament with the same breath and the same words. This ambivalence distinguishes Cohen’s song from genuinely religious music, which typically moves toward resolution and affirms hope in God’s promises. Religious faith offers a way out of despair through trust in divine providence and ultimate salvation. Cohen’s song offers no such resolution but rather invites listeners to acknowledge that human experience involves ongoing conflict between desire and reality, hope and disappointment. The song suggests that people say hallelujah not as a genuine affirmation but as a way of coping with this unresolved tension. This refusal to move toward spiritual resolution is central to understanding why the song is not fundamentally religious despite its religious language.

The Problem of Meaning in Modern Life

Cohen’s “Hallelujah” reflects broader questions about meaning, purpose, and the role of traditional religion in modern secular society. The song emerges from a context in which religious belief had become optional for many people and in which traditional spiritual frameworks seemed less capable of addressing the complexity of modern life. Cohen presents a narrator searching for meaning through human connection and physical intimacy because the traditional sources of meaning, including religious faith, no longer seem adequate or available. The song does not argue that religion is false but rather presents a character who cannot rely on faith to structure their understanding of meaning and purpose. This exploration reflects genuine historical shifts in Western culture, where religious institutions lost some of their authority over how people understood their lives and relationships. Cohen himself lived through this transition and witnessed the increasing secularization of Western societies. The song captures a moment of searching and questioning that characterizes modern secular consciousness in the face of perennial human needs for meaning and connection. The repeated hallelujah in this context functions as a kind of secular prayer, a word that carries religious weight but is no longer connected to genuine religious conviction. Cohen uses the song to explore what happens when people retain the language of faith while losing faith in the truths those words are meant to express. This theme of meaning-making in a secular world is fundamentally different from the themes explored in genuinely religious music. Religious music addresses people who maintain some form of faith and works to deepen or express that faith. Cohen’s song addresses people who are searching and uncertain, who experience the loss of faith rather than the affirmation of faith.

The Physical and the Spiritual in Tension

Throughout his career, Cohen explored the relationship between physical desire and spiritual longing, presenting them as forces that pull humans in different directions. “Hallelujah” specifically presents the body and its desires as real and important while simultaneously suggesting that physical pleasure cannot fully address the deeper human need for spiritual meaning. The song refuses to denigrate physical experience or to suggest that the body should be ignored in favor of purely spiritual concerns. However, it also refuses to suggest that the body and physical pleasure provide sufficient basis for human fulfillment and happiness. Cohen presents this tension honestly, without resolving it in favor of either the physical or the spiritual realm. The narrator of the song experiences real pleasure and real connection through physical intimacy, but these experiences prove insufficient to sustain meaning or happiness. The song suggests that human beings need both the body and the spirit, both physical connection and spiritual truth, yet these two dimensions of human existence do not always work together smoothly. This honest presentation of tension is quite different from religious perspectives that attempt to integrate the physical and spiritual through theology. Christianity specifically affirms the body as good and created by God, yet also calls people to subordinate bodily desires to spiritual principles and truth. Cohen does not present such a theology but rather leaves the tension between body and spirit unresolved. His song suggests that people speak hallelujah when they confront this tension most acutely, when they cannot determine whether their experience has genuine meaning. This exploration of the physical and spiritual in tension is an important theme in Cohen’s work and distinguishes “Hallelujah” from genuinely religious music that resolves this tension through theological affirmation.

Why People Assume the Song Is Religious

Many people encounter “Hallelujah” without fully attending to its lyrics and assume it must be religious because of the title and refrain. The word hallelujah carries such strong religious associations that listeners often conclude a song featuring this word must be a song of praise or worship. This assumption leads many people to skip over the explicit sexual content or the expressions of doubt because they are listening with an expectation that the song will be spiritually affirming. Radio stations, movies, and streaming platforms have often categorized “Hallelujah” alongside genuinely religious music, which reinforces the false impression that it belongs in the category of spiritual song. The song’s emotional power and Cohen’s serious artistic intention can seem to listeners like the marks of a spiritual work, even though those qualities do not depend on religious content. Some people hear only the chorus or the most general emotional tone without processing the specific lyrics that undermine the song’s apparent religiosity. The repetition of hallelujah throughout the song creates a hypnotic effect that can overshadow the actual content of the verses. Many cover versions of the song emphasize musical beauty and emotional expression while removing or minimizing the sexual references, which further contributes to the misconception that the song is religious. Educational contexts that teach the song often frame it as important literature without explaining Cohen’s intentions or the song’s actual content. The gap between what people assume the song means and what Cohen actually wrote reflects a broader tendency to project our expectations onto art rather than engaging carefully with what artists actually create. This widespread misunderstanding of “Hallelujah” provides an important lesson about the difference between a song that uses religious language and a song that expresses religious faith.

Cohen’s Literary and Artistic Intentions

Leonard Cohen was a serious artist who considered his work carefully and understood the implications of his word choices. He was not a careless writer who stumbled upon hallelujah as a title without recognizing its religious significance. Instead, Cohen deliberately chose to use a sacred word in a song about human doubt, sexual desire, and broken relationships. His artistic intention appears to have been to create tension between the word and its context, forcing listeners to confront questions about what merits praise and how people speak about meaning. Cohen spent years working on “Hallelujah” and produced multiple versions before settling on what became the most famous recording. This extended creative process suggests that Cohen was deliberate and thoughtful about the song’s structure, meaning, and emotional impact. He was not writing a love song that happened to mention hallelujah but rather creating a meditation on how people speak and what they speak about. Cohen’s other work often explores similar themes, including the relationship between sacred and profane, the difficulty of faith in modern times, and the limitations of language to express complex human experience. Understanding Cohen’s broader artistic project helps clarify why “Hallelujah” uses religious language in service of questioning rather than affirming faith. Cohen respected his audience and expected them to engage seriously with his work, to recognize the ironic use of hallelujah and to think about what that irony means. His artistic integrity demands that we recognize his song for what it actually is rather than projecting our assumptions about religious music onto it. Taking Cohen’s artistic intentions seriously means acknowledging that he wrote a song about human experience that remains estranged from genuine faith rather than a song of spiritual affirmation.

The Song in Religious and Secular Contexts

The story of how “Hallelujah” has been used in different religious and secular contexts illustrates the gap between the song’s actual content and how people understand it. Some religious communities have embraced the song and performed it in worship settings, treating it as though it affirms spiritual truth. This practice suggests that those communities have either misunderstood the song’s content or have consciously reinterpreted it to fit their theological perspective. Cohen’s song was not written as a tool for worship or as an aid to faith, yet some believers have used it that way. In secular contexts, “Hallelujah” has appeared in movies, television shows, and cultural events without any religious frame, sometimes functioning simply as a beautiful piece of music. These secular uses sometimes strip away any attempt to understand the song’s meaning and instead treat it primarily as an artistic achievement or an emotional experience. The song’s placement at funerals, weddings, and other significant life moments often suggests a spirituality that the song itself does not necessarily affirm. People bring their own spiritual experiences and longings to the song and hear their own meaning in it, regardless of what Cohen actually wrote. This phenomenon reveals both the power of art to speak to human experience and the difficulty of communicating authorial intent. The song’s meaning is not fixed but rather changes based on who listens to it and in what context they encounter it. However, understanding what Cohen actually created remains important for anyone who wants to engage seriously with the work. Acknowledging the gap between the song’s apparent religiosity and its actual skepticism allows listeners to appreciate what Cohen actually accomplished.

The Question of Authenticity and Irony

A central question about “Hallelujah” concerns whether Cohen intends the repeated use of the word hallelujah to function ironically or whether he means something more complicated and ambiguous. If the song employs simple irony, then hallelujah means something like “this situation does not deserve praise” or “what passes for human fulfillment is ultimately hollow.” This interpretation suggests that Cohen is dismissing both human connection and the spiritual longing it represents. However, a more nuanced reading suggests that Cohen means something more complex and less dismissive. The song might be suggesting that people reach for the language of praise because they have real experiences that feel profound, even when those experiences do not align with genuine spiritual truth. From this perspective, hallelujah functions as something people say honestly in response to their experience, even though their experience does not actually justify such language. This more generous reading does not depict Cohen as mocking either faith or human desire but rather as presenting both as real and important. The song might be saying that the gap between what we experience and what we need to believe is real and painful and that people respond to this gap by speaking hallelujah anyway. This reading honors both human vulnerability and the transcendent truth that human experience alone cannot provide. Cohen’s ambiguity about whether he is being ironic or presenting something more complex and sympathetic makes the song richer and more meaningful than a simple critique of faith would be. The question of authenticity and irony remains open, which is one reason the song continues to resonate with people across different belief systems.

Cohen’s Relationship to Judaism and Faith

Leonard Cohen was born into a Jewish family and maintained connections to Jewish tradition throughout his life, even though he did not practice Orthodox Judaism or present himself as a traditionally observant believer. His work frequently references Jewish themes, theology, and spiritual practices, suggesting that his identity as Jewish remained important even as his relationship to faith remained complicated. The song “Hallelujah” itself contains echoes of Jewish prayer and spiritual longing, even as it questions whether human experience justifies such longing. Cohen studied the Kabbalah and Buddhist meditation alongside Jewish theology, suggesting that he approached spiritual questions from multiple traditions. His decision to eventually become a Buddhist monk demonstrates his serious engagement with spiritual seeking, even as it shows that traditional Jewish faith did not ultimately provide him with the answers he sought. This spiritual journey is important context for understanding “Hallelujah,” which presents someone who recognizes the reality of spiritual longing but cannot resolve that longing through any particular faith tradition. The song does not mock faith but rather presents the honest experience of someone drawn to the language and concepts of faith while unable to commit fully to any particular religious framework. Cohen’s respect for faith traditions, combined with his inability to accept their claims as definitively true, shapes the song’s approach to hallelujah. The word hallelujah functions as both genuine expression and honest acknowledgment of the impossibility of genuine praise in the face of human limitation and doubt. This complexity reflects Cohen’s own experience as a person deeply influenced by faith traditions while remaining outside any single tradition as a full believer.

The Limitations of Language and Expression

One important dimension of Cohen’s “Hallelujah” involves the limitations of language to express the full complexity of human experience. The song suggests that people reach for words like hallelujah because they have run out of ordinary language to express what they feel. Hallelujah becomes a kind of linguistic gesture toward something that language cannot fully capture or describe. This use of hallelujah acknowledges that human beings sometimes experience moments so intense or so difficult that ordinary words seem inadequate. The song explores how people speak about these moments of intensity and what vocabulary they draw on when normal language fails. By using hallelujah in contexts where it seems inappropriate on its surface, Cohen highlights the way hallelujah functions as a human response to overwhelming emotion rather than as a precise theological statement. The song suggests that people say hallelujah when they do not know what else to say, when their experience exceeds the capacity of regular speech. This understanding of language as limited and reaching toward something beyond itself differs from how genuinely religious people typically use hallelujah. In religious contexts, hallelujah functions as a precise and true statement about God’s worthiness of praise. Cohen presents it functioning as a gesture toward something that cannot be fully captured in words. This exploration of language’s limitations is consistent with Cohen’s broader work, which frequently examines how words both reveal and conceal meaning. The song’s willingness to speak hallelujah without being certain about what that word means mirrors the human condition of reaching toward truth we cannot fully grasp.

The Broader Cultural Significance of the Song

“Hallelujah” has become one of the most famous and most frequently covered songs of the last several decades, which makes its ambiguous relationship to genuine religiosity culturally significant. The song’s popularity suggests that many people are drawn to its exploration of human experience and its unwillingness to offer easy answers. The fact that the song can be embraced both by secular audiences and by religious communities suggests that it speaks to something universal about human longing and experience. The song’s enduring presence in popular culture indicates that people continue to find meaning in Cohen’s exploration of doubt, desire, and the search for purpose. As religious belief has become increasingly optional in Western cultures, a song like “Hallelujah” that respects both faith and doubt while affirming neither has gained cultural relevance. The song models a kind of spiritual honesty that acknowledges both the reality of spiritual longing and the difficulty of faith. This cultural significance does not make the song religious, but it does suggest why people of various beliefs have embraced it. Cohen’s willingness to explore these questions seriously and without easy resolution has made the song a touchstone for conversations about meaning and faith in modern life. The song’s place in popular culture reflects broader changes in how modern people understand religion, spirituality, and the role of faith in human life. Understanding “Hallelujah” as a non-religious song that nevertheless engages with religious themes and language helps explain its continuing cultural importance. The song continues to be recorded, performed, and discussed because it speaks to genuine human experiences and questions that do not depend on any particular religious framework.

Conclusion: Understanding the Song’s Actual Message

Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is not a religious song despite its religious title and language because it does not affirm spiritual truth or invite listeners into faith. The song does not claim that God exists or that human experiences connect us to divine truth or that faith provides answers to life’s fundamental questions. Instead, the song presents someone using the language of faith and spirituality while unable to believe that language truly describes reality. Cohen treats hallelujah as a word that people speak honestly in response to their experiences, even though those experiences do not actually justify the word’s true meaning. The song explores the gap between what people long for spiritually and what they can actually achieve or understand through human effort and connection. Cohen presents this exploration with sympathy for human longing rather than mockery or dismissal of faith. The song respects the seriousness of spiritual questions while maintaining honest doubt about whether the answers provided by faith traditions are ultimately true. This approach differs fundamentally from genuinely religious music that works to deepen faith or to express the spiritual certainty of the artist. By understanding “Hallelujah” as a song about human experience in the face of spiritual longing rather than as a song of faith and praise, listeners can appreciate what Cohen actually created. The song’s power comes from its refusal to offer false comfort or pretend that human connection solves the question of meaning. Cohen invites listeners to acknowledge the real complexity of human experience and the genuine difficulty of finding or sustaining faith in the modern world. This honest exploration of human limitation and spiritual uncertainty gives “Hallelujah” its continuing cultural resonance and explains why people across different belief systems find the song meaningful. Recognizing the song as fundamentally non-religious allows us to engage with what it actually says rather than projecting our own hopes and assumptions onto it.