Jewish folklore are
legends,
music,
oral history,
proverbs,
jokes,
popular beliefs,
fairy tales,
stories,
tall tales, and
customs that are the
traditions of Judaism.
Folktales are characterized by the presence of unusual personages (dwarfs, giants, fairies, ghosts, etc.), by the sudden transformation of men into beasts and vice versa, or by other unnatural incidents (flying horses, a hundred years' sleep, and the like). A number of
haggadic stories bear folktale characteristics, especially those relating to
Og, King of Bashan, which have the same exaggerations as have the
lügenmärchen of modern German folktales. There are signs that a certain number of fables were adopted by the Rabbis either from Greek or, indirectly, from Persian and Indian sources.