[1] In his youth he went to Jerusalem and married there, but in consequence of the treachery of one of his friends, Gedaliah Cordovero, he was compelled to leave the city; he went to Constantinople, where he enjoyed the hospitality of a certain Solomon.

Though paralyzed in both feet and with the sight of one eye entirely lost, he preached twice in an Italian synagogue and gave the community cause to marvel at his unusual knowledge of midrashic literature.

[8] Lonzano's first work, composed and printed in his youth, probably in Constantinople about 1572, contains Derekh Ḥayyim, a moral poem of 315 verses; Pizmonim u-Baḳḳashot, hymns and prayers; and Avodat Miḳdash, a poetical description of the daily sacrifice in the Temple.

He generally indicates the meters of the piyyuṭim, many of which were set to Arabic melodies because these, the author thought, were better adapted, on account of their melancholy, to arouse feelings of devotion and humility;[10] or, as he says further on in the same work,[11] because they sound more solemn than any others.

He condemns, for instance, Shem Nora, imitating the title of the Italian song "Seniora"; and he felt compelled to declare solemnly before God and Israel that he used foreign terms only to praise the Lord and not for profane or frivolous purposes.

The other three "fingers" exist only in manuscript: (3) Tanna Devei Eliyahu; (4) Avot de-Rabbi Natan, Tractate Derekh eretz, Otiyyot deRabbi Akiva; (5) Sefer ha-Tashlumin, containing the remaining portions of Genesis Rabbah, and supplements to Midrash Yelammedenu, Sifra, Sifre, and Tanḥuma.

Lonzano wrote also: Adi Zahav, glosses to the Lebush of Mordecai Jaffe;[20] Imrei Emet, notes on Hayyim Vital's Kabbalah; Omer Man, commentary on Idra Zuṭa, a part of the Zohar;[21] and lexicographical observations on the Talmud Yerushalmi.

[23] He assails the author of the midrashic commentary Mattenat Kehunnah, attacks Israel ben Moses Najara on account of blasphemous illustrations and expressions in his Olat Ḥodesh, disputes with Abraham Monson concerning Vital's kaballah, with Solomon Norzi concerning the Masorah, and with others.