Magen Avraham is a commentary on Orah Hayyim a section of R. Joseph Karo’s Shulhan Arukh. R. ‎Avraham Gombiner began his commentary in 1665 and completed it in 1671. His brother Yehudah ‎travelled in 1673 to Amsterdam to print the work, but did not have the necessary funds and died ‎on the journey. It was not published until 1692 by Shabbethai Bass in Dyhernfurth after Rabbi ‎Gombiner’s death. Gombiner's son Hayyim named the book Magen Avraham to perpetuate his ‎memory even though his father's students s claimed he wished to name it Ner Yisrael ("Lamp of ‎Israel") (abbreviation: ‎נר‎ ‎יפה‎ ‎של‎ ‎רבי‎ ‎אברהם הלוי‎). Rabbi Gombiner's innovative approach ‎incorporates the customs of his contemporary Poland and introduced the Kabbalistic customs of ‎Safed, especially those found in Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz's Shene Luhot Haberit. His work is terse and ‎difficult and requires explanation by later commentators. ‎