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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\\u2019t write. He couldn\\u2019t find joy in performing.  At 39 he felt he was past his prime, that he should retire. In his own words, that he should \\u201cshut up.\\u201d

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\\u2019s 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\\u2014Leonard Cohen\\u2019s personal crisis, and Israel\\u2019s national crisis\\u2014came 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 caf\\xe9 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\\u2019t know, I\\u2019m not sure, but I think I will go to a kibbutz. Why don\\u2019t you join us? We are going to the Sinai to sing to the fighters. We\\u2019d love you to join us. 

I don\\u2019t have a guitar.