Schoenberg's Moses und Aron and the Judaic ban on images

This article argues that Schoenberg's monumental opera Moses und Aron reflects a broader German-Jewish concern with the philosophical meaning of the Second Commandment and its relation to German-Jewish identity. By way of the aesthetic theory of the German-Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen, the article analyzes Moses und Aron and suggests that Cohen's theory offers a context through which to understand the philosophical and cultural underpinnings of Schoenberg's music and drama. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the social and political milieu in which Moses und Aron was created and its implications for understanding Schoenberg's and the German-Jewish intellectual struggle for identity.