Jacob Horowitz

The son-in-law of Rabbi Reb Shmuel Smelke AB"D Nikolsburg.

Almost nothing was or is known about him and his background. Biladi in Toldot Shmuel page 89 (see Bibliography in notes to Rabbi Reb Shmelke's) provides the following facts:

He served as AB"D of Kraminov and later as AB"D of Ketelburg, a village near Pressburg (Pozony in Hungaria, today Bratislava, Slovakia), where his presence is already attested in 1788.

A nice story quoted by Biladi:

Reb Shmelke was staying overnight in a small inn located in Rava (?) and was asked by his host to check on his six years' old son's knowledge of the week's parasha. Reb Shmelke promised the child Yakov that he would give him his daughter in marriage if he did well in the test. Already on his way home, Reb Shmelke suddenly remembered his promise and, being accustomed to always keep his word, went back to pick-up the child and brought him home to Nikolsburg where he studiedin Reb Shmelke's yeshiva and in due time married his daughter. He may have picked up his father-in-law's family name out of reconnaissance for having raised him, as was frequently done in these days.

Biladi mentions the recent discovery in the National Library of Jerusalem of the manuscript eulogy pronounced at his burial by Rabbi Moshe Kluger.

See "Nahalat Zvi" by Menahem Mendel Viznitser which provides additional information on Yakov mi Ketelburg.

באוצר י"ד החיים אות תרכ"ח מביא מעשה משמו

ר' יעקב אבד"ק קאטלבעג, ווישניצא, חתן הגאון הרר"ש זצ"ל הורוויץ אבד"ק נ"ש. אחי הגאון בעל הפלאה זצ"ל.