Orphaned at a young age, Meir studied in Hebron, leaving about 1648 as an emissary to Italy, Holland, and Germany.
On his return journey, he stayed for two years in Italy to publish Ma'aseh Ḥiyya (Venice, 1652), his father's talmudic novellae and responsa.
In Amsterdam he had influenced the wealthy Abraham Pereyra to found a yeshiva in Hebron to be called Hesed le-Avraham, of which Meir himself became the head scholar.
On Sabbatai's exile to Albania in 1673, Meir returned to Gaza where he stayed with Nathan and even copied his writings for his own use.
[3] Throughout his stay in Italy Meir did much to encourage those who believed in Sabbatai Zevi and spread the writings of Nathan of Gaza.