Wirszubski, Chaim

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WIRSZUBSKI, CHAIM

WIRSZUBSKI, CHAIM (1915–1977), classical scholar. Born in Vilna, Wirszubski settled in Palestine in 1934. He taught classics at the Hebrew University from 1948 (from 1956 as professor).

He published Libertas as a Political Idea at Rome during the Late Republic and Early Principate (dissertation, 1950) and edited G.R. Moncada's Sermo de Passione Domini (1963). He translated Spinoza's Theological-Political Tractae (Ma'amar Teologi-Medini, with notes, 1961) into Hebrew and wrote an introduction to the Hebrew translation of Tacitus' Annals (Sifrei ha-Shanim, 1962). Wirszubski dealt in two lectures with Flavius Mithridates and his Latin translation Liber Redemptionis (Nosaḥ Kadum shel Perush Moreh Nevukhim…) of Abraham Abulafia's kabbalistic commentary on Maimonides' Guide (1964, 1969). He also devoted some articles to the Shabbatean movement.