''Kol Bo'' (, 'all is in it') is a collection of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

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 emotional expression in response to a major life event causing grief, especially loss. It typically occurs as a result of someone's death, especially a loved one. The word is used to describe a complex of behaviors in which t ...

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

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

, the ''Ma'aseh Torah'' of

Judah haNasi Judah ha-Nasi (, ''Yəhūḏā hanNāsīʾ‎''; Yehudah HaNasi or Judah the Prince or Judah the President) or Judah I, known simply as Rebbi or Rabbi, was a second-century rabbi (a tannaim, tanna of the fifth generation) and chief redactor and e ...

, the legend of

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

's throne, the legend of Joshua b. Levi, a kabbalistic dissertation on

brit milah The ''brit milah'' (, , ; "Covenant (religion), covenant of circumcision") or ''bris'' (, ) is Religion and circumcision, the ceremony of circumcision in Judaism and Samaritanism, during which the foreskin is surgically removed. According to t ...

, a dissertation on

gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

and noṭariḳon, 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, of the geonim Naṭronai, Hai Gaon,

Amram Gaon Amram bar Sheshna or Amram Gaon ( or ; died 875) was a gaon or head of the Academy of Sura in Lower Mesopotamia in the ninth century. He authored many responsa, but his chief work was liturgical. He was the first to arrange a complete liturg ...

, Nahshon Gaon, laws of the

mikveh A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...

taken from Perez's ''Sefer ha-Mitzvot,''

responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...

, and finally the law of excommunication of

Nahmanides Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; l ...

. 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 (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the ''Beit Yosef'', and its ...

, 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 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''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 , author= Cyrus Adler , author2= M. Seligsohn Rabbinic legal texts and responsa Exponents of Jewish law Rishonim