Faculty

Rosh Yeshiva

Rav Natan Greenberg studied Torah in Yeshivat Har Etzion and the Breslov Kollel in Jerusalem, and served in the IDF Tank Corps. He received his ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel. Before founding Bat Ayin, he served as Director of Gesher and worked in outreach with the Los Angeles Jewish community. Rav Natan has been described as the first post-modern Breslov chassid. He integrates into his life and teachings a strong commitment to Klal Israel and the openness of the modern world while staying based in serious Torah learning. Rav Natan lives in Bat Ayin with his wife Ruth and their ten children.

Rav Yehoshua Kahan was raised in Los Angeles. He attended UCLA, where he received a degree in Physics. A graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, he held pulpits in Knoxville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, and continued his Torah learning at the Yeshiva of Los Angeles and the National Torah Center of Tzefat. Rav Yehoshua has been active in Jewish education in various settings for twenty years, most recently as Educational Director of Livnot U'Lehibanot . His special passions in Torah learning and teaching are Midrash, Chumash, and the thought of Rav Kook. Rav Yehoshua lives in Bat Ayin with his wife, Shoshana, and their five children.

Rav Herzl Hefter has been teaching intensive Talmud and Halacha for more than twenty years. Rav Herzl began his yeshiva studies at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Upon his return to the U.S., he continued his studies at Yeshiva University under Rav Yeruham Gorelik, zt"l, and Rav Yosef Soloveitchik, the Rav, zt"l. The following years were devoted to study at Yeshivat Har Etzion under Rav Aharon Lichtenstein. Subsequently, he gave a semicha shiur at the Gruss Kollel of Yeshiva University in Jerusalem for 17 years. Rav Herzl has also taught Talmud at Yeshivat Har Etzion, as well as at Yeshivat Mekor Chaim in Moscow. He has served as Rosh Kollel at the Torat Tzion Kollel in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to teaching at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, Rav Herzl is also currently Director of the Bruriah Scholars Program for Women at Midreshet Lindenbaum, in Jerusalem. At Bat Ayin, Rav Herzl teaches in-depth Halachah to our rabbinical students, as well as Chassidut. His special interest is the thought of the the Izhbitzer Rav (The Mei Hashiloach). Rav Herzl lives in Efrat with his wife, Batya, and their six children.

Rav Kalman Neuman studied at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav and Yeshivat Har Etzion, and served in the I.D.F. as a combat medic. He received his Semicha in 1980, and taught at the Pardes Institute from 1985 through 2003. Rav Kalman holds a Ph.D. in European History from the Hebrew University, and has written extensively. His areas of interest include applying halachic thinking to political questions, and the teachings of Rav Kook as applied to today's reality by contemporary proponents of his thought. Rav Kalman and his wife, Nomi, live in Yerushalayim with their five children.

Rav Ozer Bergman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on Long Island's South Shore. He moved to Israel in February 1978. He has taught Jews of every stream, as old as four years and as young as 80, formally and informally, in English, Hebrew and Yiddish, in Jerusalem and from coast-to-coast in the USA. He has worked for the Breslov Research Institute for over 12 years as translator, editor and web master. His weekly divrei torah on Breslov themes can be accessed at http://www.breslov.org/parsha.html. He and his wife Udel, a social worker at Retorno, a therapeutic community in Beit Shemesh, live in Jerusalem with their as yet unmarried children. Their married children and grandchildren live in Beit Shemesh.

Rav Erez studied history and philosophy at Ben Gurion University and spent twelve years at the Shev Shmateta Kollel in Jerusalem. Rav Gazit is the lone native Israeli on the staff of the Bat Ayin Yeshiva. He grew up at the Ben Gurion Educational and Science Center in the Negev, served in the Israeli Defense Forces, and studied history and philosophy at the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva. He was also a Tai-Chi and White Tiger champion. Together with his wife, he found his way back to traditional Judaism and then studied two years at the Ohr Someyach Yeshiva in Jerusalem. After a stint with the Jewish Learning Exchange in Los Angeles, Rav Erez dedicated twelve years to intensive Talmudic research at the Shev Shmateta Kollel in Jerusalem. In addition to teaching Talmud to the Israel program at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, Rav Erez lectures on Jewish topics in the Haredi sector of the Israeli population and is active in formulating and applying innovative forms of Jewish/ Hassidic meditative techniques. The Gazit family lives in Betar Illit with their two children.

Guest Lecturer

Rav Daniel is a founding member of the village of Bat Ayin, Rav of the village, and the cofounder of the Yeshiva. He is an accomplished saxophone and clarinet klezmer musician. Rav Daniel is especially drawn to the contemplative works of the Maharal and Chassidut Chabad. He lives in Bat Ayin with his wife Batya, their seven children, and their granddaughter. Speaking about the Yeshiva, he's said "The spark of our Yeshiva is in the love we have for our students' individuality and our ability to help them grow with that which they have already gained from life."

Guest Lecturer

Rav Zvi Leshem made aliyah in 1979 and lives in Efrat with his family, where he serves as the rabbi of Congregation Shirat Shlomo. He is the Director of Overseas Programs at Nishmat, the Jerusalem Center for Higher Torah Study for Women. He studied in the Kollel of Yeshivat Hamivtar for many years and was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Rav Zvi is now completing his doctorate on the Piaseczner Rebbe's Definition of Chassidut at Bar Ilan University. He was a Jerusalem Fellow and is the author of Redemptions: Contemporary Chassidic Essays on the Parsha and the Festivals, available at Amazon.com.