FIRMAN, JOSEPH (the Elder):
Grecian rabbi and author; lived in the sixteenth century. According to Solomon Cohen, he was a native of Seres, European, Turkey, whence he went to Salonica, becoming rabbi there. Later he went to the Morea in Greece, and assumed rabbinical supervision of all communities in that peninsula. He left many unpublished decisions. Joseph Firman is mentioned in the responsa of Moses di Trani and of Jacob ha-Levi, as well as in those of his pupil Solomon Cohen. Besides Joseph Firman the Elder there is known a Joseph Firman the Younger, the grandson of the former, by whom, as by Solomon Cohen and Moses Alshech, he is mentioned.
Bibliography:
- Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, pp. 37-41.
