R. Hayyat, one of the leading kabbalists of his time, was a student of R. Samuel ibn Shraga. Among the refugees of Spain and Portugal, R. Hayyat was stranded in Malaga, where neither he nor his fellow passengers were allowed to disembark because of plague. His wife died of starvation and he was close to death. Allowed to sail for North Arica, R. Hayyat was imprisoned there for allegedly disparaging Islam. Ransomed by Jews, to whom he gave 200 books in return, R. Hayyat went to Fez where a famine compelled him to work at a mill for a piece of bread hardly fit for a dog. He finally reached Italy where, at the urging of R. Joseph Jabez and others, R. Hayyat prepared his commentary on Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, Minhat Yehudah, today considered a classic kabbalistic work in its own right.

R. Hayyat acceded to the requests that he write Minhat Yehudah because of his high estimate of Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, which opened the gate to kabbalistic subjects not well addressed elsewhere. He is critical of the anonymous commentary available in Italy, the same one that the editor printed with Minhat Yehudah. Furthermore, the vicissitudes that R. Hayyat has survived are indicative of the protective powers of the Zohar, which is why he recounts them. Minhat Yehudah is also important in that it further introduces the Zohar to Italian Jewry, where it was not well known at the time. R. Hayyat, representative of a radical school of Kabbalah, speaks disparagingly of R. Abraham Abulafia, representative of the more moderate branch of Kabbalah prevalent in Italy at the time, and of R. Isaac ibn Latif, who attempts to reconcile Kabbalah and philosophy. Indeed, in two of his letters Hayyat recommends against studying the works of those who attempt such a reconciliation.