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The Jew among Thorns
Tale of the Brothers Grimm translated by M. Hunt [1884]
Interpretation by Undine & Jens in green [2024]
After having thought a lot about the symbol of the violin in the last two fairy tales, we want to take a closer look at this fairy tale, in which the violin plays a major role and even a little beard appears.
There was once a rich man, who had a servant who served him diligently and honestly: he was every morning the first out of bed, and the last to go to rest at night; and, whenever there was a difficult job to be done, which nobody cared to undertake, he was always the first to set himself to it. Moreover, he never complained, but was contented with everything, and always merry. When a year was ended, his master gave him no wages, for he said to himself, “That is the cleverest way; for I shall save something, and he will not go away, but stay quietly in my service.” The servant said nothing, but did his work the second year as he had done it the first; and when at the end of this, likewise, he received no wages, he made himself happy, and still stayed on. When the third year also was past, the master considered, put his hand in his pocket, but pulled nothing out. Then at last the servant said, “Master, for three years I have served you honestly, be so good as to give me what I ought to have; for I wish to leave, and look about me a little more in the world.” - “Yes, my good fellow,” answered the old miser; “you have served me industriously, and, therefore, you shall be cheerfully rewarded;” and he put his hand into his pocket, but counted out only three farthings, saying, “There, you have a farthing for each year; that is large and liberal pay, such as you would have received from few masters.” The honest servant, who understood little about money, put his fortune into his pocket, and thought, “Ah! now that I have my purse full, why need I trouble and plague myself any longer with hard work!”
The fairy tale begins with a servant whom the worldly mind would call a stupid man, for he serves diligently but does not demand much pay, nor does he know the value of the money. Yet he “never complained, but was contented with everything and always merry”. Isn’t that reward enough? Only to the egotistical mind does the external world always seem stingy, for it never gives enough to find true fulfilment as long as the internal world has not been won. So let us now try to view this entire story more from the perspective of the inner world of our spirit, and consider here first the virtue of humility. The etymological dictionary derives the German “Demut” (humbleness, humility) from “Dien-Mut”, meaning “courage to serve”, and preferably without seeking personal advantage or gain. Then it is no longer the egotistical mind that serves, but holistic reason. Thus, we could see this humble service in the world of transience as a path to human reason and how, in the further course of the story, reason develops from servant to king, because reason should naturally reign in man.
This means, first of all, “I wish to leave and look about me a little more in the world”. Where is the “world”? From a spiritual perspective, it is the inner world, and then this sentence means: to look out from the narrow external world into a vast inner world. For this, the human spirit must, of course, be ready and prepared, as Master Eckhart also says:
I will not ask God to give me. Nor will I praise him for having given me. Rather, I will ask him to make me worthy to receive, and I will praise him for being of the nature and essence that he must give.
Thus, the servant was well prepared through his service and can now also receive great things.
So, on he went, up hill and down dale; and sang and jumped to his heart’s content. Now it came to pass that as he was going by a thicket a little man stepped out, and called to him, “Whither away, merry brother? I see you do not carry many cares.” - “Why should I be sad?” answered the servant; “I have enough; three years’ wages are jingling in my pocket.” - “How much is your treasure?” the dwarf asked him. “How much? Three farthings sterling, all told.” - “Look here,” said the dwarf, “I am a poor needy man, give me your three farthings; I can work no longer, but you are young, and can easily earn your bread.” And as the servant had a good heart, and felt pity for the old man, he gave him the three farthings, saying, “Take them in the name of Heaven, I shall not be any the worse for it.” Then the little man said, “As I see you have a good heart I grant you three wishes, one for each farthing, they shall all be fulfilled.” - “Aha?” said the servant, “you are one of those who can work wonders! Well, then, if it is to be so, I wish, first, for a blowgun, which shall hit everything that I aim at; secondly, for a fiddle, which when I play on it, shall compel all who hear it to dance; thirdly, that if I ask a favour of any one he shall not be able to refuse it.” - “All that shall you have,” said the dwarf; and put his hand into the bush, and only think, there lay a fiddle and blowpipe, all ready, just as if they had been ordered. These he gave to the servant, and then said to him, “Whatever you may ask at any time, no man in the world shall be able to deny you.”
Why doesn’t reason worry? Well, what worries should one have when one realizes that oneself is the eternal source of everything and has to hold on to nothing? And when we step so joyfully from the external ups and downs into our inner world, we first encounter a test of the heart at the entrance, similar to the angel with the flaming sword at the entrance to Paradise. For the spirit must be willing to let go of personal possessions from the external world and be able to wish for the right thing for the path ahead. Both of these things are very difficult for many people, but the servant was well prepared and first wished for the necessary means so that the third wish could also be granted, which is explained practically below with symbols from our external world. For this is the usual procedure in fairy tales that are given to children on their long journey through life, and it would be good if our children could also learn this humility from an early age.
“Heart alive! What can one desire more?” said the servant to himself, and went merrily onwards. Soon afterwards he met a peddler with a long goat’s-beard, who was standing listening to the song of a bird which was sitting up at the top of a tree. “Good heavens,” he was exclaiming, “that such a small creature should have such a fearfully loud voice! If it were but mine! If only some one would sprinkle some salt upon its tail!” - “If that is all,” said the servant, “the bird shall soon be down here;” and taking aim, down fell the bird into the thorn-bushes. “Go, you rogue,” he said to the peddler, “and fetch the bird out for yourself!” - “Oh!” said the peddler, “leave out the rogue, my master, and I will do it at once. I will get the bird out for myself, as you really have hit it.” Then he lay down on the ground, and began to crawl into the thicket. When he was fast among the thorns, the good servant’s humour so tempted him that he took up his fiddle and began to play. In a moment the peddler’s legs began to move, and to jump into the air, and the more the servant fiddled the better went the dance. But the thorns tore his shabby coat for him, combed his beard, and pricked and plucked him all over the body. “Oh dear,” cried the peddler, “what do I want with your fiddling? Leave the fiddle alone, master; I do not want to dance.” But the servant did not listen to him, and thought, “You have fleeced people often enough, now the thorn-bushes shall do the same to you;” and he began to play over again, so that the peddler had to jump higher than ever, and scraps of his coat were left hanging on the thorns. “Oh, woe’s me!” cried the peddler; “I will give the gentleman whatsoever he asks if only he leaves off fiddling—a purse full of gold.” - “If you are so liberal,” said the servant, “I will stop my music; but this I must say to your credit, that you dance to it so well that it is quite an art;” and having taken the purse he went his way.
When we now come within, we find, above all, our ego-mind, standing before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and other opposites, listening with great desire to the bird of conceptual thoughts that chirps its song in this tree, wanting to seize it and prepare it for itself, because the ego-mind feeds on such thoughts. Who doesn’t know this chirping of thoughts that often sings the same song for hours!? In the Grimms’ version, this role of the ego-mind is played by a “Jew,” whom we have replaced here with “peddler” to avoid the modern accusation that this fairy tale is anti-Semitic and should therefore be banned, even though it is full of wisdom and reveals the spiritual roots of why humanity seeks and carries out such terrible deeds and wars in the first place.
Grasping and holding on is a typical characteristic of the ego-mind, and reason helps it to be allowed to have this experience, but also to experience the consequences. The blowpipe is often interpreted here as a shotgun. We don’t think, that makes sense, for the shotgun shoots with fire and lead, or rather, passion and illusory truth, because lead only feels like gold in the dark. The blowgun, on the other hand, is reminiscent of the wind of the spirit and a small stone, preferably the philosopher’s stone. Thus, the bird is not killed, but merely stunned, like ineffective thoughts.
Accordingly, in meditation, one should not try to kill the thoughts that usually rule over us, but rather observe them with the concentrated mind of wisdom until they lose their power and fall from the tree to the ground of pure consciousness, in which the tree itself is rooted. And then, with complete awareness, one observes the ego-mind as it pounces, trying to grab and hold the bird, but in doing so only creates a great deal of suffering for itself—a dance, so to speak, in the thorn hedge of the worldly opposites of good and evil, mine and yours, winning and losing, life and death, etc.
And to this dance, the violin of reason plays as the force of consciousness that moves everything and makes it alive. This is the power of mindfulness in meditation, and as soon as this consciousness becomes drowsy, the ego-mind feels unobserved and at peace again, and can continue pursuing its egoistic goals, believing that they will bring much happiness and no suffering. For, the ego mind doesn’t want to dance; it prefers to stand still, grasp, and hold on, and it also doesn’t like to be observed when, like a “rogue,” it grasps something that doesn’t really belong to it. And yes, this dance doesn’t feel beautiful in meditation either, for it tears the long-worn outer garment of the mind and injures the ego-body. One must have a great deal of courage to recognize the deeper meaning in this suffering and to be willing to endure it. This is also the “humour” of reason, and so it is ultimately a true blessing to be able to play such a violin.
To this end, we find in this ancient fairy tale, long before yoga was spoken of in Europe, two principal means or methods that also play a fundamental role in yoga: concentration and mindfulness as the blowpipe and the violin. And what happens then? First, the “goat’s beard,” which loves to bleat and nag, is combed. We’ve already thought a lot about the symbolic meaning of the beard in recent fairy tales. Here, too, one could imagine that the expressed or active thoughts are ordered, smoothed, and balanced. Second, the ego-mind returns its gold to reason, which it had grasped as truth and wanted to hold on to, and thus finds its peace again, and the painful dance among the thorns of opposites ceases. For the golden crown of truth should be worn by holistic reason, not the ego-mind. Thus, the moral of the story is: Peace is not achieved by holding on, but by letting go.
But the fairy tale doesn’t end here. Because who doesn’t know what it’s like to have a hurt ego when the goatee starts to complain?
The peddler stood still and watched the servant quietly until he was far off and out of sight, and then he screamed out with all his might, “You miserable musician, you beer-house fiddler! Wait till I catch you alone, I will hunt you till the soles of your shoes fall off! You ragamuffin! Just put five farthings in your mouth, and then you may be worth three halfpence!” and went on abusing him as fast as he could speak. As soon as he had refreshed himself a little in this way, and got his breath again, he ran into the town to the justice. “My lord judge,” he said, “I have come to make a complaint; see how a rascal has robbed and ill-treated me on the public highway! A stone on the ground might pity me; my clothes all torn, my body pricked and scratched, my little all gone with my purse, — good ducats, each piece better than the last; for God’s sake let the man be thrown into prison!” - “Was it a soldier,” said the judge, “who cut you thus with his sabre?” - “Nothing of the sort!” said the peddler; “It was no sword that he had, but a blowgun hanging at his back, and a fiddle at his neck; the wretch may easily be known.”
As soon as the ego-mind regains its composure and can “stand still” unchallenged by reason, it naturally demands its claim to ownership of truth, rails against holistic reason, which is a fundamental threat to its separating consciousness, and cries out loudly for justice. So, a big question arises: Can there even be true justice for the ego, which can only seek its own advantage? Is it just if I appropriate something and then fight against anyone who wants to take it away from me, punishing and even killing them? Yes, for this purpose, our ego-mind has created a social order with many laws designed to secure personal ownership of land, house, goods, body, and other possessions. And for this purpose, we also have a “sense of justice,” which appears here in the fairy tale as a judge.
So, the judge sent his people out after the man, and they found the good servant, who had been going quite slowly along, and they found, too, the purse with the money upon him. As soon as he was taken before the judge he said, “I did not touch the peddler, nor take his money; he gave it to me of his own free will, that I might leave off fiddling because he could not bear my music.” - “Heaven defend us!” cried the peddler, “His lies are as thick as flies upon the wall.” But the judge also did not believe his tale, and said, “This is a bad defence, no peddler would do that.” And because he had committed robbery on the public highway, he sentenced the good servant to be hanged. As he was being led away the peddler again screamed after him, “You vagabond! You dog of a fiddler! Now you are going to receive your well-earned reward!”
In this way, the ego-mind can quickly convince the sense of justice it has created for itself. After all, what ego would voluntarily give up its property, and especially the gold of its own truth? It can only have been stolen by force by “another,” who must now be punished and, ideally, killed, so that the ego-mind can continue to live undisturbed. Does this perhaps also happen in our external world: that we want to kill reason so that the ego-mind can live?
Yet reason remains calm, for it knows that true justice can only exist for holistic reason and not for the conceptual ego-mind. As Master Eckhart also says:
Our Masters ask whether the angels are grieved when man sins? We say: No! For they behold the righteousness of God and therein comprehend all things in him (= in God), as they are in God. Therefore, they cannot grieve. Now, in its enabling power, reason resembles the natural light of the angels, which is the evening light. With its active power, however, it carries all things up into God, and it is all things in this morning light. (Sermon 51)
Thus, reason, too, has no fear of death, for this fear is merely a characteristic of the ego-mind, which believes it can lose its supposed property. And so, reason moves calmly and serenely through the stages of physical life, and even at the final stage, it can turn away from death and toward eternal life, for it is aware of its power and knows: “The righteous lives in God, and God in him.” (Sermon 25)
The servant walked quietly with the hangman up the ladder, but upon the last step he turned round and said to the judge, “Grant me just one request before I die.” - “Yes, if you do not ask your life,” said the judge. “I do not ask for life,” answered the servant, “but as a last favour let me play once more upon my fiddle.” The peddler raised a great cry of “Murder! Murder! For goodness’ sake do not allow it! Do not allow it!” But the judge said, “Why should I not let him have this short pleasure? It has been granted to him, and he shall have it.” However, he could not have refused on account of the gift which had been bestowed on the servant. Then the peddler cried, “Oh! Woe’s me! Tie me, tie me fast!” while the good servant took his fiddle from his neck, and made ready.
Now, once again, the ego’s great fear of reason, that it might gain dominion over the ego-mind, is revealed. For ego doesn’t like to move, but rather wants to hold on and be bound rather than dance to the tune of reason. And yet, in the end, reason wins.
As he gave the first scrape, they all began to quiver and shake, the judge, his clerk, and the hangman and his men, and the cord fell out of the hand of the one who was going to tie the peddler fast. At the second scrape all raised their legs, and the hangman let go his hold of the good servant, and made himself ready to dance. At the third scrape they all leaped up and began to dance; the judge and the peddler being the best at jumping. Soon all who had gathered in the market-place out of curiosity were dancing with them; old and young, fat and lean, one with another. The dogs, likewise, which had run there got up on their hind legs and capered about; and the longer he played, the higher sprang the dancers, so that they knocked against each other’s heads, and began to shriek terribly.
At length the judge cried, quite out of breath, “I will give you your life if you will only stop fiddling.” The good servant thereupon had compassion, took his fiddle and hung it round his neck again, and stepped down the ladder. Then he went up to the peddler, who was lying upon the ground panting for breath, and said, “You rascal, now confess, whence you got the money, or I will take my fiddle and begin to play again.” - “I stole it, I stole it!” cried he; “But you have honestly earned it.” So, the judge had the peddler taken to the gallows and hanged as a thief.
Thus, the third blessing is now granted, and all wishes can be fulfilled. For pure consciousness, which no longer clings to any form of its own and no longer fears death as the principle of separation, can naturally assume any desired form. In this way, holistic reason can play the leading role in the inner or spiritual world, moving and animating everything. And that is the blessing of all creation, a living dance of harmony and concord. Only those who want to assert their own will and refuse to join in the dance will knock against “others” in this dance, suffer accordingly, and ultimately “panting for breath”. But on this path, we come to reason in the dance of creation. Thus, our sense of justice also awakens and gives life to reason and not to the ego. And the ego-mind confesses its guilt and returns the gold of truth to reason, which thus becomes king again, rules over the conceptual mind, and wears the golden crown of truth. Then holistic reason speaks: “I am the light of the world, the way, the truth, and the eternal life.” And the ego reveals itself as transient life, as a mortal illusion of the conceptual mind.
In this way, reason enters the inner as a servant and returns to the outer as a king. For the king is he whose request is also command. And the true king is he who is free and unbound, free from attachment and unbound by selfish desires that cling to any form...
On this topic, we can also recommend the historical text by Jakob Boehme, “On True Serenity,” which describes:
How man must die daily to his own will in his selfhood, and how he should bring his desires into God, what he should ask and desire of God, and how he can emerge from the death of sinful man with a new mind and will in God. It also describes what the old and new man is, each one in his life, will, and deed.
May the violin of reason resound with pure love everywhere! 🙏
• ... Table of contents of all fairy tale interpretations ...
• The Six Swans - (topic: senses, thoughts and expansion)
• The poor Girl and the Star-Money - (topic: poverty in spirit)
• Death and the Goose Herder - (topic: geese and wholeness)
• The Fox and the Geese - (topic: mind and wholeness)
• The Goose-Girl at the Well - (topic: spirit, soul and nature)
• The Golden Goose - (topic: recognize true wholeness)
• The Goose-Girl and Falada - (topic: unity and diversity)
• King Thrushbeard - (topic: holy and healthy marriage)
• Saint Solicitous - (topic: beard and violin)
• The old witch - (topic: true Love and Reason)
• The Jew among Thorns (topic: Reason and Mind)
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[1884] Grimm's Household Tales. Translated from the German and edited by Margaret Hunt. With an introduction by Andrew Lang, 1884, Vol. 1/2, London: George Bell and Sons |