Moses and Aaron (1975) - full transcript

"As now Moses saw that
the people were naked,

"for Aaron when he raised them up
had made them naked to their shame,

"he stood at the gate of the camp and spoke:
'Here to me who belongs to the Lord.'

"Then all the sons of Levi gathered
themselves to him, and he spoke to them:

""Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel,
bind each one his sword at his side

"and go back and forth through
the camp from one gate to the other

"and slay each other one his brother,
friend and neighbor.'

"The sons of Levi did as
Moses had said to them,

"and there fell that day

"of the people three thousand men."”

MOSES AND AARON



Opera in three acts

Pate I
1. The Calling of Moses

Unique

Eternal

Omnipresent

Invisible

And unrepresentable God!

Put off thy shoes

Thou hast gone far enough

Thou standest on holy ground

God of my fathers

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Thou who hast reawakened
their idea in me

My God, do not oblige me



To proclaim it

I am old

Let me In rest to pasture my sheep

Thou hast seen the abominations

Known the truth

Thou canst otherwise no more

Thou must free thy people

Who am I

To set myself against
the might of blindness?

Bound to the unique God

United with thee

Divided from Pharaoh

What will testify to the people
of my mandate?

The Name of the Unique!

The Eternal will free it

That it no longer serve the perishable

Nobody will believe me!

Before their ears
thou wilt do wonders

Their eyes will acknowledge them

From thy staff will they hear
Will wonder at thy cleverness

From thy hand
will believe in thy power

From the Nile water will feel what
Is commanded to their blood

My tongue is not flexible

I can think

But not speak

As from this thorn bush

Dark ere the light of truth
fell upon it

So wilt thou perceive my voice

From everything

Aaron will I enlighten

He shall be thy mouth

From him shall thy voice speak

As from thee mine!

And you will be blessed

For this I promise thee

This people is chosen
before all peoples

To be the people of
the unique God

That they may know him

And devote themselves to him alone

That they may endure all
the trials to which

In millennia the idea is exposed

And this I swear to thee

I will lead you thither

Where you will be united
with the Eternal

And to all peoples

A model

And now go!

Thou wilt meet Aaron in the desert

He comes upon thee on the way

Thereby shalt thou know him

Proclaim!

2. Moses encounters Aaron
in the desert

Thou, son of my fathers

Thou, son of my father,
brother of the spirit,

from whom the Unique will speak:

perceive me and him,

and say what thou understandest.

My brother, did the Almighty

Give me to thee as a vessel

To pour out over our brothers

The grace of the Eternal?

Happy people

To belong to a unique God

Others exist only in man,
only in the representation.

In it the Omnipresent has no room.

Imagination of the highest
fantasy

No image can give thee an image
of the Unrepresentable

People, chosen, to know the Invisible...

...10 think the Unrepresentable.

Chosen people, eternally
to love a unique God

With a thousand times more

Love

than all the other peoples

Love their many gods

Invisible

Unrepresentable!

People, chosen for the Unique

Canst thou love

What thou darest not
represent thyself?

Unrepresentable,

because invisible,

because incommensurable,

because unending,

because eternal,

because omnipresent,

because almighty.

Only One

IS almighty.

Thou punishest the sins of the fathers

On the children and the children's children

Dost thou punish?

Are we capable of causing
what obliges thee to consequences?

Thou rewardest those
who obey thy commandments

Righteous God, thou hast directed
joy, everything shall happen.

Is a reward owed to him
who would gladly otherwise?

Or to him who is not able to do otherwise?

Thou hearest the prayers of the poor

Almighty God, thee did purchase
the offerings of the poor,

whom thou hast made poor?

Purify thy thinking

Loose it from the worthless

Dedicate it to the true

No other gain thanks thy offering.

Only an almighty God

Could choose such a weak

Humiliated people

To show in them his almightiness

His wonders

To teach them

To believe in him alone

The inexorable law of thought

compels to fulfillment.

Almighty!

Be the God of this people!
Free it from Pharaoh's servitude!

3. Moses and Aaron proclaim to
the people the message of God

I have seen him as a fiery flame
sprang up, which was calling him!

He threw himself on his knees
and hid his face in the sand

Then he went into the desert

He just passed by my house
like a luminous cloud

He floated more than he walked
Scarcely did his foot touch the way

And quickly he vanished
from my eyes

I questioned him

But he did not heed me, ran on

And still I heard
A God had commanded him

To meet his brother Moses In the desert

Moses?

He who slaughtered the taskmaster?

Moses! He fled!

Overtook the wrath of Pharaoh!

Is he coming back to stir up revolt?

Bound with a new God!

A new God, new offerings

He will protect us

The old gods

Have also protected

If the one didn't

We turned to the other

One cannot demand the impossible
from the gods either

The new God
Perhaps he is stronger than Pharaoh?

Stronger than our gods?

The other gods help only the oppressors

This is the God who will help us

If one should judge him by this Moses
Then he will require blood offerings

The new God won't help us either

Blaspheme not!

There are Gods who only punish

And those who only reward

Blood offerings!

Many must be reconciled often

Others can be won over lastingly

If he helps us

If he protects us against the servants
of Pharaoh and against his false Gods

He shall be our God
God of the children of Israel

whom we serve
To whom we make offering

Do not believe the beguilers!

He will free us!

The Gods love us not!

We want to love him!

Who is it that wants to be
stronger than Pharaoh's god?

We want to make him offerings!

Leave us in peace!

Back to work!

Lest it become still heavier!

He will free us!

See Moses and Aaron!
See Aaron and Moses!

Is Moses standing or is he going?

Moses is standing!
No, he is walking slowly!

Mighty his white head

Violent his arm!

Aaron, certainly no longer young

Hastens winged, on a light step

Far ahead of him and yet near him

They are nearer, are farther

They are not moving in space

Are nearer, are farther

Are higher, are deeper

Vanish completely

See Moses, see Aaron
They are now there!

Do you bring hearing
Message of the new God?

Does he send you to us
as leaders to new hope?

Gladly will we offer up gold
Goods and life to him!

Self love compels us, drives us
to give ourselves to him

Not only for the prospect
of grace

Giving itself is voluptuousness
Is highest grace!

The Unique, Eternal,
Almighty, Omnipresent...

He has chosen you

Before all peoples

...demands no offering from you:

he wants not a part, he requires the whole.

And will give to you alone
his whole grace

Throw yourselves down
to adore him!

Adore? Whom?

Where is he? I see him not!

Does he look good or evil?

Shall we love or fear him?

Show him to us!

Then will we kneel
Then will we drag cattle here

And gold and grain and wine!

All shall your God receive
If we are his people

If he protects us
If he is our God

But where is he?
Show him to us!

Close your eyes

Stop up your ears!

Only thus can you see

And hear him!

No living man sees

Or hears him otherwise!

IS he never to be seen?

Eternally invisible?

What? Thy almighty God
cannot make himself visible to us?

The righteous man sees him

I saw his glow!

Then the murderer

Need not fear him

Who sees him not is lost!

Then are we all lost
for we see him not!

Stay far from us with thy God
With the Almighty!

We do not want to be freed through him!

Stay as far from us as thy God

The Omnipresent!

We fear and love him not!

As little as he rewards
and punishes us!

We do not want to be freed through him!

Almighty

My power is at an end

My idea is impotent

In Aaron's word!

Be silent!

The word am I and the deed!

Aaron, what dost thou?
What does thou, Aaron?

This staff leads you

See, the serpent!

Flee! The serpent is growing!
It is twisting!

See! It is turning against everyone!

In Moses' hand a rigid staff

The law

In my hand

The moving serpent

Cleverness

Place yourselves so
as it compels you!

Away, draw back!

Come over here, go there!
Divide yourselves better!

In vain, it holds us in its spell!

Know the might

That his staff

Imparts to the leader!

A wonder fills us with terror

The staff which changes into a serpent

Shows Aaron as master of this people

Is Aaron the servant of this Moses

And Moses the servant of his God

So must it be a mighty God

Since mighty servants serve him!

He will free us!

We want to serve him!
We want to make him offering!

Thy staff compels us

Yet it does not compel Pharaoh
to let us free!

Your courage is broken

Your pride vanished

Without hope you serve and believe

Neither in yourselves nor in God

Your heart is sick!

Thus will you not compel Pharaoh!

Strong is Pharaoh!
Weak are we!

See Moses' hand

Healthy is it and strong

But Moses' heart is like yours now

Because he knows you are weak

And without courage

If he leads his hand to his heart
Which is sick, like yours, see!

Leprosy!

Flee!

Keep away from him!

Don't touch him
You will be sick!

Know yourselves therein

Without courage

Sick

Despised

Enslaved

Persecuted!

But now dwells in Moses' bosom

The spirit of the strong God

Who compels Pharaoh
to abolish forced taskwork

See!

Leads Moses now to this strong heart

The leprous, sick hand

Wonder!

Healthy is the hand and strong!

Know yourselves also therein

Your courage will
vanquish Pharaoh!

Through Aaron
Moses lets us see

How he himself
has beheld his God

Leprous the hand of the unbeliever

Healthy the heart of him
who trusts God

Thus this God becomes
representable to us

The symbol expands itself
to the image

The heart believes
full of courage in a God

Whom visible wonders attest

Through Aaron Moses lets us see

How he himself has beheld his God

Thus this God becomes representable
whom visible wonders attest

Almighty God!

All for freedom!

Let us break the chains!

Slaughter the taskmasters!

Slaughter their priests!

Destroy their Gods!

Off into the desert!

Mad men! Whereof shall
the desert nourish you?

In the desert

The purity of thought will nourish you

Preserve and develop you

And the Eternal lets
you see an image

Of your physical happiness

In every spiritual wonder

The All-knowing knows that
you are a people of children

And does not expect from children
what is difficult for grown-ups

He reckons with this

That all children mature

And all old men become wise

He gives you time
to dedicate your life in joy

To the preparation

For the wisdom of age

He will not let you lack for food
even in the desert

The Almighty changes

Sand into fruit

Fruit into gold

Gold into delight

Delight into spirit

Who feeds the Nile

That nourishes this land?

He who changes the staff into the serpent

Health into leprosy

See the Nile water

In this jar

No, you are not mistaken

What you now see is blood!

Do you understand that?

It Is your blood

That nourishes this land

Like the water of the Nile

Fat are you making the servants of lies

Of the false Gods

Yes, the Almighty frees you

And your blood

He has chosen you

Before all peoples

To be the people of the unique God

To serve him alone

No one else"s servant!

You will be free
from task and plague!

This he promises you

He will lead you into the land

Where milk and honey flows

And you shall enjoy physically

What was sworn to your fathers spiritually

Yet what remains for Pharaoh
See here

Is again the clear water
of the Nile

And therein will he sink down!

He has chosen us

Before all peoples

To serve him alone

No one else's servant

We shall be free from
task and plague!

This he promises us

He will lead us into the land

Where milk and honey flows

And we shall enjoy

What he swore to our fathers

Almighty, thou art stronger
than the Gods of Egypt

Pharaoh and his servants
dost thou strike down

From forced taskwork
Moses and Aaron free us

Eternal God, we serve thee

We consecrate to thee
our offerings and our love

Thou hast chosen us

Leadst us into the promised land

We shall be free, free, free!

Act ll
Before the Mountain of Revelation

Where is Moses?

Where Is the leader?

For a long time already
no one has seen him!

Never will he return!

Where is his God?

Where is the Eternal?

Forty days!

Forty days we have
already been here!

How long shall this still last?

Forty days now have we been
waiting for Moses

And still no one knows
rule nor law

Unrepresentable law
of the unrepresentable God!

Juda always occupies
the best pastures!

Harsher than Egypt

To forced taskwork
without day of rest

Ephraim compels
Benjamin's sons!

Benjamin's sons

Have raped Ephraim's women!

Violence reigns!

Unruliness knows not its punishment
Virtue not its reward!

Forty days have we been

waiting in vain

Before this height!

When Moses comes down

From this height

Where to him alone

The law Is revealed

Shall my mouth transmit to you

Rule and law

Do not expect the form

Before the idea!

But at the same time

It will be there!

That will come too late!

The people are desperate!

They mistrust this height

Whose fence cuts them off from
the Mountain of Revelation

They rage

They believe none of us any longer

Hold the fence as arbitrary

The revelation as subterfuge

Moses' silence as flight!

Hear! Hear! Too late!

Where is Moses?
That we tear him to pieces!

Where is the Omnipresent?
That he looks on at it

Where is the Almighty?
That he hinders us from it!

Fear nothing!
Tear him to pieces!

The Unrepresentable has not
forbidden it!

Give us back our gods

That they create order!

Or we will tear you to pieces

Who have taken from us
law and rule!

Aaron, help us!

Speak to them!

They will murder us!

Thee, will they hear!

Thou hast their heart!

People of Israel!

My brother Moses remains

Where he always is

Whether he be near or far from us

He remains on this height

By his God

Perhaps he has forsaken us

He who was far from us

Perhaps his God has
forsaken him

To whom he was near

Perhaps he came too
near to him!

It is a stern God

Perhaps he has killed him!

His God has killed him!

The gods have killed him!

The strong Gods annihilate
RN RN

The Invisible gives help to no one!

The Eternal could not protect him!

The Invisible lets himself
be glimpsed nowhere!

His God is impotent!

Slaughter them, burn them
The priests of this false God!

Aaron

Help us

Give in!

People of Israel!

Thy gods I give back to thee

And thee to them

As Is thy desire

Leave the far away

To the Eternal!

To your measure are gods

Of a present, everyday substance

You contribute this material

I give it such a form

Everyday, visible, graspable

Eternalized in gold

Bring gold hither!

Make offerings!

Call him forth!

You shall become happy!

Their physical visibility

Presence

Guarantees our security!

Their limits and measurability

Do not require what is denied
to our feeling

Gods

Near to our feelings, Gods

Whom we wholly comprehend

Let felicity award virtue

Let justice punish misdeed

Showing the consequences of our deeds

Gods, your might displays itself

Be joyful, Israel, rejoice, Israel!

Colorful is this present
Dismal is that eternity

Life's pleasure shuns not its end
Fearless it seeks it willingly

Pleasure borders on life and on death
Intensifies to the latter by the former

Threat inflames the courage to live
Steadfastness and bravery

To thy Gods as substance thou
gavest thy inmost, thy feeling for life

Thy Gods' aspect is assured by
thy gold, divest thyself of it!

Make thyself poor

Make them rich!

They will not let thee hunger!

Be joyful, Israel!

This image attests that in
everything that is, a god lives!

Unchangeable, like a principle

Is the material, the gold
which you have given

Seemingly changeable
like everything is

Secondary, is the shape

which I gave it

Revere yourselves in this symbol!

O image of the Gods

Thou dost radiate, dost warm

Dost heal

As never the sun did heal

I merely lay my finger on thee

And already the crippled
limbs move

Here, O Gods

Take the last rags

That have protected us from the sun's glare

And the desert's dust

And here the last morsels

That we have begged for tomorrow

The last moments

That we have still to live

Take them as offering

They have killed themselves!

Free under its own masters

A people submits itself only to gods

Who rule powerfully

Princes of the tribes

Pay homage with me

To this image of regulated powers!

In the name of
all the tribes lead by us

Gods, see us before you
on our knees

The higher might submitted
to the highest

Free under our own masters!

High as the idea were
we raised up

Far from the present

Near to the future!

Deep as life are we lowered
deep as life

Smashed be this image
of the temporal!

Pure be the outlook
upon eternity!

Here, look now upon eternity

If nearness to life is to thee
of so little worth!

Blissful are the people

And a wonder greatly shows

What enthusiasm

What exaltation are capable of

No one unchanged

Each upraised

No one unaffected

Each taking part

Human virtue

Powerfully

Reawakened

Earnestness and joy

moderation and immoderation
Cheerfulness

Happiness and longing

Spring and rest

Recollection

Greed

Renunciation

Avarice

Prodigality

And covetousness

Everything beautiful
Good, ugly

Bad testimony of its own life

Perceptible, tangible

Sense gives the soul sense first

Soul is sense

Gods

You who gave the soul

Senses to perceive the soul

Gods

Be praised!

Thou golden god, thy glow
streams through me like pleasure!

Only what glows is good

Unassailable virtue of gold
Unlosable virginity

Rewarded as a model and image

O golden God

O priests of the golden Gods

The blood of virginal untouchability

Like gold's metallic coldness

Not warmed up for fructification

O Gods, exalt your priests

Exalt us

To the first and last pleasure

Heat up our blood

That it may evaporate

Sizzling on the cold gold!

O red gold!

Blood offering!

After your model, gods
Live we love!

Holy is genital power!

Holy is fecundity!

Holy is pleasure!

Gods, you who gave the soul

Senses, to perceive the soul

Gold glows like pleasure!

Human virtue is like gold!

Gold is like pleasure!
Gold is mastery!

Justice!

Bewildering glow!

Moses is going down from the mountain!

Begone,

thou image of the inability
to grasp the boundless

IN an image!

All pleasure, all joy, all hope is gone!

Let us flee the violent one!

Aaron,

what hast thou done?

Nothing new!

Only, what was constantly
my function

When thy idea gave forth no word
My word no image

Before their ears, their eyes
to do a wonder

On whose order?

As always

I heard the voice within me

I did not speak

But I nonetheless understood

Be silent!

Thy mouth

Thou wast long far from us

By my idea!

That ought to be near thee!

When thou makest thyself solitary

Thou art thought dead

The people have waited long
upon the word of thy mouth

From which rule and law spring

So I had to give them an image
to look upon

Thy image faded before my word!

To thy word images and wonders
Which thou despisest

Were otherwise denied

And yet was the wonder
no more than an image

When thy word destroyed my image

God's eternity annihilates

The gods' presence!

That is no image

No wonder!

That is the law!

The imperishable

Say it, like these tables
Perishably

In the language of thy mouth!

Let Israel's persistence

Attest

The idea of the Eternal!

Dost thou now intuit
the almightiness of the idea

Over words

And images?

I understand it so

This people shall be preserved!

But a people can only feel

I love this people

I live for them and want
to preserve them

For the sake of the idea!

I love my idea

And live for it!

Thou too wouldst love
this people

Hadst thou seen how they live
When they dare, see, feel, hope!

No people can believe

What they do not feel

Thou shakest me not!

They must grasp the idea!

They live only for that!

A pitiable people, a people
of martyrs would they be then!

No people grasp more than
a part of the image

Which expresses the graspable
part of the idea

So make thyself
understandable to the people

In a manner suited for them

I should falsify the idea?

Let me resolve it!

Transcribing, without speaking
forth, interdictions

Fear-arousing, yet followable
Assure persistence

Necessity transfiguring
Commandments

Hard, yet hope-awakening
Anchor the idea

Unconsciously will be done
as thou wilt

Humanly stumbling

Wilt thou then find thy people

Yet worth loving!

That will I not live through!

Thou must live!

Thou cannot do otherwise!

Thou art bound to thy idea!

Yes, to my idea

As these tables express it

That are also only an image
a part of the idea

Then I smash these tables

And will pray God that he recalls
me from this charge

Fainthearted!

Thou, who hast God's word

With or without tables

I, thy mouth

Do guard thy idea

however I may speak it forth

Through images!

Images of thy idea

They are the idea, like everything
that issues forth from it

I bend myself to necessity

For this people shall be preserved

to attest to the idea of eternity

My destiny

Is to say It worse
than I understand it

Nevertheless those who know

Will always find it again

See there!

The fiery pillar!

It leads us by night

The Almighty gives a sign
to the people through me

The cloudy pillar!

It leads us by day

idolatrous images!

God's signs
Like the glowing thornbush!

Therein the Eternal
shows not himself

But the way to himself

And the way to
the promised land!

Almighty, thou art stronger
than Egypt's gods

Unrepresentable God!

Unspeakable, many-meaning idea!

Dost thou permit this interpretation?

Dare Aaron, my mouth, make this image?

Thus have I made myself an image,

false,

as an image can only be!

Thus am I beaten!

Thus all was madness that I have thought,

and cannot

and dare not be said.

O word,

thou word,

that I lack!

Act Ⅲ

Aaron, now it is enough!

Wilt thou murder me?

It is not a matter of thy life.

The promised land...

An image.

In images had I to speak, thou in concepts,

to the heart,
where thou speakest to the brain.

Thou, from whom the word flees
along with the image,

thou thyself remainst, livest in the images

which thou dost pretend
to produce for the people.

From the source, from the idea estranged,

then neither the word nor
the image are enough for thee...

Visible wonders had I to do,

where the word and the image
of the mouth failed.

Then for thee only the deed,
the action were enough?

Then thou madest the staff into
a leader, my power into a liberator,

and the Nile water accredited almightiness.

Then thou didst desire physically,
really, to tread with thy feet

an unreal land, where milk and honey flows.

Then thou didst strike the rock,
instead of speaking to it.

As was commanded thee,
so that water flowed from it,

From the naked rock the word

had to strike refreshment.

Never did thy word come
unexplained to the people.

For this I spoke to the rock with the staff

In its language which
the people also understand.

Thou sayest it worse than thou
undestandest it, for thou knowest

that the rock is an image like
the desert and the thornbush.

Three, which do not give to the body
what it needs, against the spirit,

to the soul, what of its absence of
desire is enough for eternal life.

The rock also, like all images,
obeys the word,

whereupon it was become apparent.

Thus, thou didst win the people not
for the Eternal, but for thyself.

For their freedom,
that they become a people!

To serve, to serve the idea of God,

IS the freedom for which
this people is chosen.

Thou, however, didst submit them
to strange gods.

To the calf and to the fiery
and cloudy pillars.

For thou dost like the people
because thou feelest like it and thinkest so.

And the God whom thou showest
is an image of impotence,

IS dependent upon a law above himself,

must fulfill what he is prayed,
must do what he has promised,

IS bound to his word.

As men act, for good or evil, so must he.

Punish their evil deeds,
reward their good deeds.

But man is independent and does
what pleases him, of his free will.

Here the images already rule over
the idea, instead of expressing it.

An Almighty... Whatever he may maintain,
is committed to nothing, bound by nothing.

The deed of the transgressor
does not bind him,

nor the prayer of the good,
nor the offering of the penitent.

Images lead and rule this people,
that thou hast freed,

and strange wishes are their gods

and lead them back into the slavery
of godlessness and enjoyment.

Thou hast betrayed God
for the gods, the idea to the images,

this chosen people to the others,
the extraordinary to the ordinary.

Shall we kill him?

Always, when you mix yourselves
amongst the peoples

and employ your gifts
which you are chosen to possess

in order to the fight for the idea of God,

and you employ your gifts
to false and worthless ends

IN competition with strange peoples
to participate in their base joys,

always, when you leave
the absence of desire of the desert

and your gifts have led you
to the highest height,

always will you be hurled down again

from the success of misuse
back into the desert.

Set him free, and if he is able,
so may he live!

But in the desert you are insuperable

and will reach the goal, united with God.