Perels claimed that his grandfather Chajim of Worms was the grandson of Judah Leib the Elder and thus a claimant to the Davidic line, through Sherira Gaon.

Sources in the Lubavitch tradition[12] say that at the age of 12, Loew went to yeshivahs in Poland and studied under Rabbi Yaakov Pollak.

[15] Loew moved to Prague in 1573, where he again accepted a rabbinical position, replacing the retired Isaac Hayoth.

[15][16] Loew's family consisted of his wife, Pearl, six daughters, and a son, Bezalel, who became a rabbi in Kolín, but died early in 1600.

[17] His elder brother was Hayim ben Bezalel, who authored a legal work Vikuach Mayim Chaim which challenged the rulings of Krakow legalist, Moshe Isserles.

"[17] He employed rationalist terminology and classical philosophical ideas in his writings,[17] and supported scientific research on condition that it did not contradict divine revelation.

[15] Nevertheless, Loew's work was in many ways a reaction to the tradition of medieval rationalist Jewish thought, which prioritized a systematic analysis of philosophical concepts, and implicitly downgraded the more colorful and ad-hoc imagery of earlier rabbinic commentary.

According to Loew, the multitude of disconnected opinions and perspectives in classical rabbinic literature do not form a haphazard jumble, but rather exemplify the diversity of meanings that can be extracted from a single idea or concept.

[19] Loew's writings use as sources the Biblical verses and the recorded traditions of the rabbis, but through literary and conceptual analysis he develops these into a comprehensive philosophical system in which the following terminology recurs:[19] An example of this terminology is Loew's philosophical interpretation of the following midrash: "The world was created for three things: challah, maaser, and bikkurim.

[17] It is unknown how many Talmudic rabbinical scholars Loew taught in Moravia, but the main disciples from the Prague period include Rabbis Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller and David Gans.

Kerem Maharal, a moshav in northern Israel, was established by Czech Jewish immigrants and named in Loew's honour.

In April 1997, Czech Republic and Israel jointly issued a set of stamps, one of which featured the tombstone of Loew.

Loew is the subject of the legend about the creation of a golem, a creature made out of clay to defend the Jews of the Prague Ghetto from antisemitic attacks, particularly the blood libel.

[27] The general view of historians and critics is that the legend is a German literary invention of the early 19th century.

His works on the holidays bear titles that were inspired by the Biblical verse in I Chronicles 29:11: "Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, and the might, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth [is Yours]; Yours is the kingdom and [You are He] Who is exalted over everything as the Leader."