Jacob ben Wolf Kranz

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Jacob ben Wolf Kranz of Dubno (Hebrew: יעקב קרנץ), the Dubner Maggid (מגיד מדובנה), was a Lithuania (Belarus)-born preacher (maggid).

He was born at Zietil, government of Wilna (now Belarus), about 1740; died at Zamość December 18, 1804.

At the age of eighteen he went to Międzyrzec Podlaski (Meseritz) , where he occupied the position of preacher. He stayed there for two years, and then became preacher successively at Zolkiev, Dubno, Wlodawa (government of Lublin), Kalisch, and Zamosc. He remained at Dubno eighteen years, his stipend being at first six Polish gulden per week with lodging, this amount being afterward augmented by two gulden. He left Dubno for Wilna at the request of Elijah Wilna, who, having recently recovered from a sickness and being unable to study, sought diversion in his conversation.

Jacob was an unrivaled preacher. Possessed of great eloquence, he illustrated both his sermons and his homiletic commentaries with parables taken from human life. By such parables he explained the most difficult passages, and cleared up many perplexing questions in rabbinical law. He was also an eminent rabbinical scholar, and on many occasions was consulted as an authority.

All of Jacob's works were published after his death by his son Isaac Kranz and his pupil Abraham Bär Plahm. These are:

"Ohel Ya'aqob," a homiletic commentary on the Pentateuch abounding with graphic parables (i., Jozefow, 1830; ii., Zolkiev, 1837; iii., Vienna, 1863; iv., 1861; v., Vienna, 1859);
"Qol Ya'aqob" (Warsaw, 1819), a similar commentary on the Five Scrolls;
"Kokab mi-Ya'aqob," a commentary on the "haft'arot";
"Emet le-Ya'aqob" (Zolkiev, 1836), a commentary on the Passover Haggadah;
"Sefer ha-Middot" (n.p., 1862), ethics arranged in eight "gates" or sections, each section being divided into several chapters. This work resembles very much the "Chobot ha-Lebabot" of Bachya.

As the author himself had given no name to it, Abraham Bär Plahm, its editor, at first intended to call it "Chobot ha-Lebabot he-Chadash" ("The New 'Chobot ha-Lebabot'"); but out of respect for Bachya he changed his mind. The editor also revised the work, and added to it a preface containing a sketch of the author's life, and glosses of his own under the title "Shiyyure ha-Middot". Moses Nussbaum of Przemysl extracted from the author's "Ohel Ya'aqob" all the parables, and published them in one book entitled "Mishle Ya'aqob" (Cracow, 1886).