The Bible has its parables, but the Midrash overflows with them.

They are occasionally re-workings of older thoughts, but mostly they are original creations, invented for a special purpose, stories devised to drive home a moral, allegories administering in pleasant wrappings unpalatable satires or admonitions.

In all ages up to the present, Jewish moralists have relied on the parable as their most effective instrument.

The poetry of the Jewish parables is characteristic also of the parables imitated from the Jewish, but the latter have a distinguishing feature peculiar to them.

This is their humor, the witty or humorous parable being exclusively Jewish.