Prayers, proverbs, parables, and fables, dot the pages of Talmud and Midrash alike.

The ancient _proverbs_ of the Jews were more than mere chips from the block of experience.

They were poems, by reason of their use of metaphor, alliteration, assonance, and imagination.

The Rabbinical proverbs show all these poetical qualities.
He who steals from a thief smells of theft .-- Charity is the salt of Wealth .-- Silence is a fence about Wisdom .-- Many old camels carry the skins of their young .-- Two dry sticks and one green burn together .-- If the priest steals the god, on what can one take an oath ?--All the dyers cannot bleach a raven's wing .-- Into a well from which you have drunk, cast no stone .-- Alas for the bread which the baker calls bad .-- Slander is a Snake that stings in Syria, and slays in Rome .-- The Dove escaped from the Eagle and found a Serpent in her nest .-- Tell no secrets, for the Wall has ears.
These, like many more of the Rabbinical proverbs, are essentially poetical.

Some, indeed, are either expanded metaphors or metaphors touched by genius into poetry.