Rabbi Ezra Hirsch
Learning in the Kollel
Third-Year Avreich
Avreich
Kollel Toras Chaim
Biography
Rabbi Ezra Hirsch grew up in Los Angeles, where he completed his bachelor’s degree while simultaneously graduating from high school. He originally planned to spend two years learning in yeshiva in Israel before pursuing a career in the film industry. During those years, however, he came to recognize that Torah is not simply one part of life—Torah is life. That realization led him to remain in Israel and dedicate himself to full-time Torah learning.
“Torah is not simply one part of life - Torah is life.”
Shortly after getting married, while learning in his previous yeshiva, one of his meshivim suggested that Rabbi Daniel Travis’s Kollel would be the perfect place for him.
Now completing his third year at Kollel Toras Chaim, Rabbi Hirsch reflects that his time in the Kollel has given him a new perspective—not only on Torah learning, but on how Torah shapes every part of life. Through Rabbi Travis’s example of devotion to Torah, tefillah and helping others, together with his guidance in both halacha and hashkafa, Ezra has gained an entirely new way of looking at life.
He continues to grow in Torah and develop the tools to become the most effective mashpia he can be for Klal Yisrael. He lives in Yerushalayim with his wife and their two children.
Torah Reflection
Rav Wolbe explains that Elul is not simply a time to become afraid of the approaching Yom HaDin. It is a time to wake up and become aware of Hashem again. A person can go through his day davening, learning and performing mitzvos, yet become so caught up in the routine that he forgets Who he is doing it all for.
“Elul is a time to wake up and become aware of Hashem again.”
This is the message of “אני לדודי ודודי לי”—“I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” Elul gives us the opportunity to renew that relationship. Rav Wolbe teaches that genuine growth does not require changing everything at once. It can begin with one small moment: pausing before Shemoneh Esrei and recognizing that we are about to speak directly to Hashem, or simply stopping during the day and remembering that Hashem is with us.
“Genuine growth does not require changing everything at once. It can begin with one small moment.”
Perhaps that is the opportunity of Elul: not to become a different person overnight, but to bring Hashem back into the life we are already living. When we take even one small step toward Him—“אני לדודי”—we begin to experience “ודודי לי”: Hashem drawing closer to us in return.
Lighting the Chanukah candles
Rabbi Travis Reflects
If there is one word that encapsulates Ezra Hirsch, it is sincerity. Ezra puts his all into everything he does—whether studying halacha b’iyun, overseeing the Kollel’s videos or pursuing his goal of mastering kol haTorah kulah.
Ezra has tremendous aspirations to know and understand every letter of the Torah. I am confident that his sincerity, passion and dedication will carry him to very special places.
Rabbi Daniel Travis, Rosh Kollel, Kollel Toras Chaim