''Kol Bo'' (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: כל-בו, "all is in it") is a collection of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

ritual and civil laws. Its author has not yet been ascertained. The work in content resembles other codes, as, for instance, the ''Orḥot Ḥayyim'', though in its form it is very different.

Its contents and peculiarities

The ''Kol Bo'' does not pretend to any order; the laws that were later arranged in Orach Hayyim are found together with those that were later arranged in ''Yoreh De'ah'' and ''Even haEzer''. Likewise, many laws are entirely missing in the ''Kol Bo''. It is peculiar also in that some of the laws are briefly stated, while others are stated at great length, without division into paragraphs. After the regular code, terminating with the laws of

mourning Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...

(No. 115), there comes a miscellaneous collection, containing the "takkanot" of

R. Gershom Gershom ben Judah, (c. 960 -1040) best known as Rabbeinu Gershom ( he, רבנו גרשום, "Our teacher Gershom") and also commonly known to scholars of Judaism by the title ''Rabbeinu Gershom Me'Or Hagolah'' ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the ...

and of

Rabbeinu Tam Jacob ben Meir (1100 – 9 June 1171 (4 Tammuz)), best known as Rabbeinu Tam ( he, רבינו תם), was one of the most renowned Ashkenazi Jewish rabbis and leading French Tosafists, a leading ''halakhic'' authority in his generation, and a gr ...

, the ''Ma'aseh Torah'' of Judah haNasi, the legend of Solomon's throne, the legend of Joshua b. Levi, a kabbalistic dissertation on

brit milah The ''brit milah'' ( he, בְּרִית מִילָה ''bərīṯ mīlā'', ; Ashkenazi pronunciation: , " covenant of circumcision"; Yiddish pronunciation: ''bris'' ) is the ceremony of circumcision in Judaism. According to the Book of Genesi ...

, a dissertation on

gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

and

noṭariḳon Notarikon ( he, נוטריקון ''Noṭriqōn'') is a Talmudic and Kabbalistic method of deriving a word, by using each of its initial (Hebrew: ) or final letters () to stand for another, to form a sentence or idea out of the words. Another va ...

, 61 decisions of Eliezer ben Nathan; 44 decisions of Tashbetz, decisions of Isaac of Corbeil, and responsa of Peretz ha-Kohen, decisions of

Isaac Orbil Isaac of Ourville ( he, ''Yiṣḥaq me-Orvil'', ) was a medieval French rabbi, author of the as yet unpublished ''Menahel'', a book of '' halakha'' (Jewish ritual law). Isaac appears to have been a contemporary of Perez of Corbeil (died ); I ...

, of the geonim Naṭronai, Hai Gaon,

Amram Gaon Amram Gaon ( he, עמרם גאון, or Amram bar Sheshna, Hebrew: עמרם בר רב ששנא, or sometimes: Amram ben Sheshna or Amram b. Sheshna; died 875) was a ''gaon'', head of the Jewish Talmud Academy of Sura during the 9th century. ...

, Nahshon Gaon, laws of the

mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or ( Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...

taken from Perez's ''Sefer ha-Mitzvot,'' responsa, and finally the law of excommunication of

Nahmanides Moses ben Nachman ( he, מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־נָחְמָן ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; el, Ναχμανίδης ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ra ...

. Due to its varied contents, the book was later quoted under the title of "Sefer ha-Likkutim".

Author

As to the author of the ''Kol Bo,'' there are different opinions. Joseph Caro, in saying that the words of the ''Kol Bo'' are identical with those of the ''Orḥot Ḥayyim'' of Aaron ben Jacob ha-Kohen (14th century), seems to have suggested that the ''Kol Bo'' is an abridgment of the ''Orḥot Ḥayyim''. This is also the opinion of the Chida, and according to Aaron Schlitzstadt, the epitomizer was a certain Shemariah b. Simḥah, in the 14th century; others think that it was Joseph ben Tobiah of Provence. By some scholars it is attributed to a pupil of Peretz ha-Kohen; by others it is identified with the "Sefer ha-Nayyar"; and by Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya it is attributed to Isaac ben Sheshet. Benjacob concluded that the author of the ''Kol Bo'' was Aaron ben Jacob ha-Kohen, author of the ''Orḥot Ḥayyim'', and that the ''Kol Bo'' was an earlier form of the ''Orḥot''. Its lack of system and the inadequacy of its authorities are due, Benjacob considers, to the youth of the author.

Zunz Zunz ( he, צוּנְץ, yi, צונץ) is a Yiddish surname: * (1874–1939), Belgian pharmacologist * Sir Gerhard Jack Zunz (1923–2018), British civil engineer * Leopold Zunz (Yom Tov Lipmann Tzuntz) (1794–1886), German Reform rabbi and ...

refutes Benjacob's arguments, his opinion being that the ''Kol Bo'' is a compendium of the ''Orḥot Ḥayyim''. The oldest edition bears neither place nor date, but

Joseph Zedner Joseph Zedner (10 February 1804 – 10 October 1871) was a German Jewish bibliographer and librarian. After completing his education, he acted as teacher in the Jewish school in Strelitz ( Mecklenburg), where the lexicographer Daniel Sanders wa ...

''Cat. Hebr. Books Brit. Mus.'' p. 191. conjectures that it was published at Naples in 1490; the second edition is dated "Constantinople, 1519".

References

{{JewishEncyclopedia, title=Kol Bo, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=338&letter=K, authors=

Cyrus Adler Cyrus Adler (September 13, 1863 – April 7, 1940) was an American educator, Jewish religious leader and scholar. Early years Adler was born to merchant and planter Samuel Adler and Sarah Sulzberger in Van Buren, Arkansas on September 13, 186 ...

and

M. Seligsohn Max Seligsohn (April 13, 1865 – April 11, 1923 Manhattan) was an American Orientalist, born in Imperial Russia. Having received his rabbinical training at Slutsk, government ('' guberniya'') of Minsk, he went in 1888 to New York City, where he s ...

Its bibliography: * Azulai, ''Shem ha-Gedolim'', ii.; *

Benjacob Isaac ben Jacob Benjacob (January 10, 1801, Ramygala – July 2, 1863, Vilnius) was a Lithuanian Jewish Maskil, best known as a bibliographer, author, and publisher. His 17-volume Hebrew Bible included Rashi, Mendelssohn, as well as his own '' ...

, ''Oẓar ha-Sefarim'', p. 239; *

David Conforte David Conforte (c. 1618 – c. 1685) () was a Hebrew literary historian born in Salonica, author of the literary chronicle known by the title ''Ḳore ha-Dorot.'' Biography Conforte came of a family of scholars. His early instructors were rabbis ...

, ''Ḳore ha-Dorot'', p. 25b; *Gross, in ''Monatsschrift'', xviii. 444; *

, ''Ritus'', pp. 32, 179–180; *M. Schlesinger, in the introduction to his edition of Aaron ha-Kohen of Lunel's ''Orḥot Ḥayyim'', Berlin, 1902. Rabbinic legal texts and responsa Exponents of Jewish law Rishonim