Our Sages said, just as the reward for learning Torah is greater than all the mitzvas, so forsaking Torah is punished more harshly than the worst sin. Every day a herald comes out of Mount Horev and declares, ‘Woe to people who forsake the Torah’. Not learning Torah is the greatest belittling of its importance, for how can a mere mortal possibly abstain from cleaving to that which is so accessible, yet ultimately divine.
A person should imagine he was given a one-time opportunity to do something only very rich people can afford, surely he would do so gladly even without any return. How much more so should a person be overjoyed to learn the holy Torah that angels frolic with, and all the tzaddikim in Heaven delve deeply into, and now he is given the golden opportunity to share in their fortune.
