Hoshana Rabbah 5710 – ד׳ ניסן תש״ף | 1950 – 2020
Founder, Ezra LaTalmid Learning Center
A lifetime devoted to harbotzas Torah — bringing every talmid, wherever he stood, to the confidence and joy of learning Gemara on his own.
This site is kept as a tribute to Rabbi Nachman Morgan, זצ״ל, and as a living home for the method of Gemara learning he spent his life teaching. Below you can read about his life, and — in his honor — continue learning through the Gemara shiurim he recorded for his talmidim.
Word by word, line by line — Rabbi Morgan's shiurim gave hundreds of talmidim the tools to open a Gemara anywhere in Shas and learn it themselves. His recorded classes remain available to learn from today.
Gemara Shiurim & Audio Classes →חייו
Nachman Morgan was born in 1950 in Dolton, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, on Hoshana Rabbah, into a middle-class American Jewish family. His path toward a life of Torah began at seventeen, when he spent a summer at Beis Medrash L'Torah of Skokie. That summer changed the course of his life — he resolved to become a full-fledged yeshiva bochur and, in time, a mezakeh es harabim, someone who brings the merit of Torah to others.
After his first real introduction to Gemara learning at the Skokie yeshiva, he traveled to Eretz Yisrael to learn in the Mir. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, zt"l, who tested him personally, turned to his son after the farher and said the words that would define the young man's welcome into the yeshiva world:
He spent three formative years in the Mir, absorbing the mussar and hashkafa of Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, zt"l. From there he went on to Beis Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, where he grew close with the mashgiach, Rav Nosson Wachtfogel, zt"l, whose constant yearning for Moshiach left a lasting imprint on him.
He married the daughter of Reb Zorach Shapiro, zt"l, of Monsey, New York, and spent the following ten years fully immersed in kollel learning — first in Detroit under Rav Leib Bakst, zt"l, and later in the first Lakewood-affiliated kollel of Mexico City, founded by HaRav Avraham Baddouch, zt"l. It was from this foundation that he entered the world of chinuch, the calling that would shape the rest of his life.
He began teaching a second-level Gemara shiur in Skokie, a position he held for four years, teaching with a visible energy that, as it happened, caught the attention of a Chicago Tribune editor looking to profile a rabbi for the paper's human-interest page. Not long after, he moved to Los Angeles, where he would spend the next 33 years as a fixture of the community — first as a rebbe at Toras Emes, forming relationships with young talmidim that many maintained into adulthood, and then, following his true calling, as the founder of Ezra LaTalmid.
Ezra LaTalmid was built around a simple conviction: that any student, regardless of background or ability, could learn to open a Gemara and understand it on his own — if only he was given the right foundation. Rabbi Morgan developed a method of teaching Aramaic word by word, line by line, with particular emphasis on mastering the shakla v'tarya, the back-and-forth logic of the Gemara's discussion. With endless patience and a discerning eye for where each talmid stood, he gave hundreds of students the confidence to learn independently, anywhere in Shas. It made no difference who you were or where you came from — if you wanted to learn, Rabbi Morgan took you in as a talmid for life.
Rabbi Morgan was niftar on March 29, 2020 — ד׳ ניסן, Daled Nissan — after contracting COVID-19, in the middle of a life still full of teaching. He is survived by his wife, Esther, and their seven children and grandchildren, spread across communities around the world, along with the many talmidim he leaves behind — each one shaped, in some way, by his patience and his love of Torah.
יהי זכרו ברוך — May his memory be a blessing.
תמונות
Photos courtesy of the family and VINnews.
Tributes and coverage from the community
Ezra LaTalmid was never just an organization — it was Rabbi Morgan's life's work, built one talmid at a time. His shiurim continue to be learned from today, carrying forward the method and the warmth he brought to every lesson. This site exists to keep that legacy accessible, and to keep his memory close.