The son of Jacob Vita and Diamente Luzzatto,[1] he received classical Jewish and Italian education, showing a predilection for literature at a very early age.

He wrote epithalamia and elegies, a noteworthy example of the latter being the dirge on the death of his teacher Cantarini, a lofty poem of twenty-four verses written in classical Hebrew.

In these psalms, composed in conformity with the laws of parallelism, he freed himself from all foreign influences, imitating the style of the Bible so faithfully that his poems seem entirely a renaissance of biblical words and thoughts.

[3] As a youth Luzzatto essayed also dramatic poetry, writing at the age of 17 his first biblical drama, "Shimshon u-Felistim", (of which only fragments have been preserved, in another work of his).

There is a vast difference between Luzzatto's style, which recalls the simplicity, smoothness, and vigor of the Bible, and the insipid, exaggerated, and affected work of his contemporaries.

[3] In the same year or somewhat later, Luzzatto wrote his allegorical festival drama "Migdal 'Oz" (or "Tummat Yesharim"), on the occasion of the marriage of his friend Israel Benjamin Bassani.

It is masterly in versification and melodious in language, the lyrical passages being especially lofty; and it has a wealth of pleasing imagery reminiscent of Guarini's "Pastor Fido".

His peers were enthralled by his written accounts of these "Divine lessons", but the leading Italian rabbinical authorities were highly suspicious and threatened to excommunicate him.

Although, at one point, Zevi had convinced many European and Middle Eastern rabbis of his claim, the episode ended with him recanting and converting to Islam.

In this contentious interpretation, he identified one of his followers as the Messiah, son of David, and assumed for himself the role of Moses, claiming that he was that biblical figure's reincarnation.

This caused a major uproar and many heated letters passed between Moshe Hagiz and Yaakov Poppers and Basan threatening to undermine the latter's authority if he did not hand over the box with Luzzato's writings to the rabbis of Venice.

The book presents a step-by-step process by which every person can overcome the inclination to sin and might eventually experience a divine inspiration similar to prophecy.

Da'at Tevunot ("The Knowing Heart") also found its existence in Amsterdam as the missing link between rationality and Kabbalah, a dialogue between the intellect and the soul.

It was the great Torah ethicist, Israel Salanter (1810–1883), who placed the Messilat Yesharim at the heart of the Musar (ethics) curriculum of the major yeshivas of Eastern Europe.

Supposedly taught word-by-word in Aramaic by Luzzatto's "Maggid", they parallel the Tikunei haZohar ("Rectifications of the Zohar"), ascribed by some to Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai, the Rashbi, which describe the 70 fundamental understandings of the first verse of the Humash (Books of Moses).