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Jewish folklore are
legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
s,
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
,
oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
,
proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbia ...
s, jokes,
popular belief Popular beliefs are studied as a sub-field of social sciences, like history and anthropology, which examines spiritual beliefs that develop not independently from religion, but still outside of established religious institutions. Aspects of popular ...
s,
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
s,
stories Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (Briti ...
, tall tales, and
customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
that are the
tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
s of Judaism. Folktales are characterized by the presence of unusual personages, by the sudden transformation of men into beasts and vice versa, or by other unnatural incidents. A number of aggadic 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.


Middle Ages

There is considerable evidence of Jewish people bringing and helping the spread of Eastern folktales in Europe. Joseph Jacobs.
Folk-Tales
entry. In: ''
The Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...
''. Vol. 5. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls company, 1902. pp. 427-428.
Besides these tales from foreign sources, Jews either collected or composed others which were told throughout the European
ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished ...
s, and were collected in Yiddish in the "Maasebücher". Numbers of the folktales contained in these collections were also published separately. It is, however, difficult to call many of them folktales in the sense given above, since nothing fairy-like or supernormal occurs in them.


Legends

There are a few definitely Jewish legends of the Middle Ages which partake of the character of folktales, such as those of the Jewish pope Andreas and of the
golem A golem ( ; he, , gōlem) is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is entirely created from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late 16th-century ...
, or that relating to the wall of the Rashi chapel, which moved backward in order to save the life of a poor woman who was in danger of being crushed by a passing carriage in the narrow way. Several of these legends were collected by (''Sagen und Legenden der Jüdischen Vorzeit''). In the late 19th century many folktales were gathered among Jews or published from Hebrew manuscripts by in the ''Revue des Etudes Juives'', in the ''Revue des Traditions Populaires'', and in ''Melusine''; by Moses Gaster in ''Folk-Lore'' and in the reports of Montefiore College; and by Max Grunwald in ''Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Jüdische Volkskunde''; by L. Wiener in the same periodical; and by F. S. Krauss in ''Urquell'', both series.


Aggadah and folklore compilations

* ''
The Legends of the Jews The ''Legends of the Jews'' is a chronological compilation of aggadah from hundreds of biblical legends in Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash. The compilation consists of seven volumes (four volumes of narrative texts and two volumes of footnotes wi ...
'' by Rabbi
Louis Ginzberg Louis Ginzberg ( he, לוי גינצבורג, ''Levy Gintzburg''; russian: Леви Гинцберг, ''Levy Ginzberg''; November 28, 1873 – November 11, 1953) was a Russian-born American rabbi and Talmudic scholar of Lithuanian-Jewish desc ...
, is an original synthesis of a vast amount of aggadah from the
Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...
, the two Talmuds and
Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...
. Ginzberg had an encyclopedic knowledge of all rabbinic literature, and his masterwork included a massive array of aggadot. However he did not create an anthology which showed these aggadot distinctly. Rather, he paraphrased them and rewrote them into one continuous narrative that covered five volumes, followed by two volumes of footnotes that give specific sources. *The '' Ein Yaakov'' is a compilation of the aggadic material in the Babylonian Talmud together with commentary. *''Sefer Ha-Aggadah'', "The Book of Legends" is a classic compilation of aggadah from the Mishnah, the two Talmuds and the Midrash literature. It was edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Rawnitzki. Bialik and Ravnitzky worked to compile a comprehensive and representative overview of aggadah; they spent three years compiling their work. When they found the same aggadah in multiple versions, from multiple sources, they usually selected the later form, the one found in the Babylonian Talmud. However they also presented a great some aggadot sequentially, giving the early form from the Jerusalem Talmud, and later versions from the Babylonian Talmud, and from a classic midrash compilation. In each case each every aggadah is given with its original source. In their original edition, they translated the Aramaic aggadot into modern Hebrew. Sefer Ha-Aggadah was first published in 1908–11 in
Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
, Russia, then reprinted numerous times in
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. In 1992 it was translated into English as "The Book of Legends", by William G, Braude. * ''Mimekor Yisrael'', by Micha Josef (bin Gorion) Berdyczewski. Berdyczewski was interested in compiling the
folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...
and legends of the Jewish people, from the earliest times up until the dawn of the modern era. His collection included a large array of aggadot, although they were limited to those he considered within the domain of folklore.


See also

*
Jewish mythology Jewish mythology is the body of myths associated with Judaism. Elements of Jewish mythology have had a profound influence on Christian mythology and on Islamic mythology, as well as on world culture in general. Christian mythology directly in ...
* Valley of the ants, a Jewish legend


References

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Further reading

;Analytical studies: * Jason, Heda. "Types of Jewish-Oriental Oral Tales". In: ''Fabula'' 7, no. Jahresband (1965): 115–224. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1965.7.1.115 * Jason, Heda. "Study of Israelite and Jewish Oral and Folk Literature: Problems and Issues". In: ''Asian Folklore Studies'' 49, no. 1 (1990): 69-108. Accessed May 18, 2021. doi:10.2307/1177950. * Noy, Dov. "The First Thousand Folktales in the Israel Folktale Archives". In: ''Fabula'' 4, no. 1 (1961): 99-110. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1961.4.1.99 ;Compilations: * Gaster, Moses. ''The exempla of the rabbis; being a collection of exempla, apologues and tales culled from Hebrew manuscripts and rare Hebrew books''. London; Leipzig: The Asia Pub. Co., 1924. * Schwartz, Howard. ''Elijah's violin and other Jewish folktales''. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987. Middle Eastern folklore