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Will and testimony of R. Ezekiel ben Abraham Katzenellenbogen, rabbi of the three communities, Hamburg, Altona, and Wandsbeck (1714–49). The title page by his son, the head of the community, R. Jacob. It had been printed previously in Amsterdam in 1750. The text, in a single column in rabbinic letters, includes one diagram in p. 7 with instructions relating to R. Katzenellenbogen’s casket.
R. Ezekiel ben Abraham Katzenellenbogen was a Polish-German rabbi; born in Lithuania about 1670; died at Altona July 9, 1749. At first rabbi at Keidani, he was called to Altona in 1714. This call he owed to the efforts of Issachar Kohen, an influential member of the Altona congregation; and Katzenellenbogen in return secured the election of Issachar Kohen's son-in-law to the rabbinate of Keidani. R. Jacob Emden, who reports this story in his "Megillat Sefer" (pp. 121-140), seems, however, to have been prejudiced against R. Katzenellenbogen, whom he describes as a man of very low moral character, an ignoramus, and a poor preacher.
R. Ezekiel ben Abraham Katzenellenbogen’s descendants for four generations occupied rabbinates in various Polish communities. His epitaph is found in Blogg's "Sefer ha-Hayyim" (p. 337; Hanover, 1862). He wrote: "Keneset Yehezkel," responsa, Altona, 1632; "Tefillot le-Yarzait," prayers and rituals for Jahrzeit, ib. 1727; "Zawwa'at R. Yehezkel," his will, Amsterdam, 1750; "Mayim [Mi-Yam?] Yehezkel," homilies on the Pentateuch, Porick, 1786; "Lehem Yehezkel," Talmudic novellæ (mentioned in his preface to "Keneset Yehezkel," but never published). According to Steinschneider ("Cat. Bodl."), R. Katzenellenbogen is probably the author of the "Me'orer Zikkaron" (Altona, 1727), an index to Talmudic passages with an abstract of the decisions of Rashi, the tosafists, etc |
