You Want It Darker

There's no question that Leonard wrote this preparing for death. It's an element that hangs heavy over the rest of the album as well. He's alluding to quite a few Jewish and Christian concepts relating to death, sacrifice, and salvation. Most striking is his use of "hineni" a Hebrew word that essentially means "behold" but is often used as a marker of personal willingness as in "here I am" (which Leonard translates for us in the next line). Hineni is scattered throughout the Hebrew text and it especially found when a father is calling to a son, i.e. in Genesis 27 Isaac calls to Esau for a before-death request. Hineni also figures heavily into the story of the binding of Isaac where the word is used 3 times: Once for Abraham responding to God who is going to ask for Isaac to be sacrificed, once for Abraham responding to Isaac who is questioning where the sacrifice is (it's you, kid!), and once when God calls out of heaven and tells Abraham to stop the sacrifice. Along with this use of hineni, Leonard alludes to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. "Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name, vilified, crucified, in the human frame" evoke the sense of the Christian belief of Jesus Christ (God's "name" in Trinitarian thought, the member of the Trinity that human beings best comprehend) dying "in the human frame" which then results in the magnification of God - the worship of Him. So what's the point? It's tough to say for sure. There's a lot that makes it seem like this song is simply Leonard saying he's had enough of seeing the pain of human kind and that he is ready for Resurrection or afterlife of some kind. However, it may be deeper - and if it is, it is actually preparing himself for death by considering his own death the ultimate sacrifice that also in turn results in his own sanctification (being made holy) and magnification (being made great).