''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
Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro ( he, יוסף קארו; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the '' Beit Yosef'', and its popular analogue, the ''Shu ...
, 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 Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph (Hebrew: גדליה אבן יחיא בן יוסף; – 1587) was a 16th-century Italian Talmudist and Biblical chronologist chiefly known for his Biblical Chronology "Shalshelet HaḲabbalah".
Biography
Born in I ...
it is attributed to
Isaac ben Sheshet
Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (or Barfat) (1326–1408) ( he, יצחק בן ששת) was a Spanish Talmudic authority, also known by his acronym, Rivash (). He was born at Valencia and settled early in life at Barcelona, where he studied at the scho ...
. 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 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;
*
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 ...
, ''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