In the 1550s and 1560s, Caro’s Beyt Yosef and Shulḥan `aruk were the most up-to-date, comprehensive legal codes of Jewish law. Yet, at about the same time, another expansive work on Jewish law was being written by Solomon Luria. Luria had completed a section of his book by late summer 1551.1 He showed the material to Rabbi Kalman of Worms (d. 1560), the rabbi of Lwów, and asked him to write a letter of support for the volume, which Rabbi Kalman did in mid-September of that year.2 Rabbi Kalman noted that he had seen “the stand-alone book [sefer ha-ḥibbur] that the distinguished [mubhaq] rabbi [i.e., Luria] had composed” and went on to praise Luria’s abilities of deduction, originality, and writing skills.3 Rabbi Kalman made no mention of the title of the book.4