Abraham Farrar

Abraham Farrar was a Portuguese physician and poet. Born in Porto, he initially practiced medicine in Lisbon, but he later settled in Amsterdam. Farrar was the nephew of Jacob Tirado, founder of the Portuguese congregation Beth Yaakov in Amsterdam. Menasseh Ben Israel dedicated his Thesauro dos dinim to him. Farrar’s Declaração das seiscentas treze encomendanças da nossa Santa Ley (Declaration of the 613 Commandments of Our Holy Law) is a rendering of the commandments in Portuguese verse. It explains in accessible style how the laws should be observed and may have been part of the rich literature written in the period by rabbis and scholars to educate former conversos about Jewish observance.