Zohar Hadash was assembled by R. Abraham b. Eliezer ha-Levi Berukhim (c. 1515–1593), pious ascetic and Safed kabbalist. Born in Morocco, he immigrated to Palestine probably before 1565. In Safed he joined R. Moses Cordovero's circle and became a friend of R. Elijah de Vidas. When R. Isaac Luria went to Safed (late 1569), R. Abraham joined his school and was a member of its “fourth group.” R. Hayyim Vital had a great affection for him and in several places quotes kabbalistic sayings of R. Isaac Luria which he had heard from R. Abraham. R. Vital quotes R. Luria as saying that in the “origins of the souls of the Safed kabbalists,” R. Abraham derived from the patriarch Jacob. R. Abraham was a visionary and ascetic, who preached piety and morality, and called for repentance. He was called the “great patron of the Sabbath” and he went out on Friday mornings to the markets and streets to urge the householders to hurry with the preparations for the Sabbath meals and close their shops early so that they would have time to purify themselves for the Sabbath. Almost nothing is known about his life. Many legends have been preserved about his piety and about R. Luria's affection for him. His Tikkunei Shabbat were printed at the end of Reshit Hokhmah ha-Kazar (Venice, 1600) and thereafter in numerous editions as a separate book. On the other hand, his Hasidut, containing the rules of pious behavior which he established for his group in Safed, circulated in manuscript even in the Diaspora. He was the first editor and collector of articles of the Zohar which had not been included in the Mantua edition of 1558–60; these were afterward published under the title Zohar Hadash. It is not clear whether he was the author of Gallei Rezayya, parts of which were published in his name (1812). It is probable that R. Tobiah ha-Levi, author of Hen Tov, was his son.

The only work printed the the eldest of the Shapira brothers. R. Moses Shapira, son of the zaddik R. Phinehas b. Abraham of Korets, founded the Slavuta printing press, in 1791. Later his two sons, Samuel Abraham and Phinehas, took over the administration of the press. Three editions of the Babylonian Talmud, an edition of the Bible (with commentaries), the Zohar, and many other religious works, especially Hasidic literature, were all produced handsomely and with great care by the press. In 1836 the press was closed down when the owners were arrested for the alleged murder of a worker who had supposedly denounced them for printing books without permission from the censor. Slavuta imprints are rare as they were consistently and continuously used by Hasidim, causing extreme wear and the destruction of many copies.

מפתחות חסרונות "הזוהר" ו"תיקונים" נשמטו.הסכמת רבני אוסטרהא: ר' אשר צבי ב"ר דוד, ר' נתן נטע ב"ר שמואל , ר' יהודה ליב ב"ר אברהם אבלי מקרעמניץ, ר' מרדכי ב"ר אברהם לעמיל, ר' יואל ב"ר זאב וואלף ור' מרדכי ב"ר שמעון הלוי הורוויץ, יא אייר תקנ"ג.