Our Leadership
Harav Eliezer Ben-David z’tl
Founder
Rabbi Eliezer Ben-David is a founder and spiritual mentor of Torat Hayim. He is known to be
Rabbi Rabbi David Zargari
Spiritual Leader
Rabbi David Zargari came to Los Angeles 30 years ago to found a Torah community based in the more yeshivish Pico neighborhood. The son of a teacher, he started out life much like his traditional Persian friends, expecting to earn a college degree and follow a profession. He left Iran as a young man just after the 1967 Six Day War to study at Hebrew University, and thought he’d continue his studies in North America. Instead, he ended up under the wing of legendary Persian Jewish activist and Ner Israel president Rabbi Naftali Neuberger and Rosh Yeshivah Rav Yaakov Weinberg, and instead of becoming a businessman, became a talmid chacham. He wound up using his administrative skills to lead a kehillah and a school, and today, his Torat Hayim complex occupies three stories on South Robertson Boulevard.