1. When told about the spiritual value of learning Torah, the
   reaction of many students is to agree that it may well be true –
   “but we are on too low a spiritual level for it to apply for us,
   both because our learning standard is so low and because our
   relationship with Hashem is so poor.”
2. They are sadly mistaken; they don’t realize that Hashem loves
   every single Jew very dearly. At every moment He is waiting for
   you to fulfill your spiritual obligations to serve Him in whatever
   way you are capable of. When you do learn Torah – at your own
   level – then you and your Torah are beloved in Hashem’s eyes to
   an extent that we cannot even imagine. Whether you are aware
   o f it or not. He is pouring His spiritual bounty down on to you.
3. This is true of every sphere and every level of learning Torah,
   without any exceptions. In the Gemara it says that the world
   exists because o f ‫רבן‬ ‫בית‬ ‫של‬ ‫תינוקות‬ ‫של‬ ‫פיהם‬ ‫הבל‬ – the empty
   words that come from the mouths o f children o f the
   schoolroom, because their meaningless talk is untainted by sin.
   The Chafetz Chaim says that it refers to very young
   schoolchildren, and the level of Torah that they learn is not very
   high since they are too young to understand it properly. From
   this we can infer that learning Torah even at lower levels
   contains the spiritual elements of Torah-study.
4. All the same, as explained by the Derech Chaim, the
   superiority of Torah learnt at a loftier level can not be denied.
   The more you understand o f what you learn, the more the
   Torah’s truth becomes clearer and more obvious to you. You will
   feel the Torah’s exalted light of spirituality shining through your
   soul with increased brilliance, and your contact with Hashem
   intensified.
5. Even if his behavior causes a person to fall very low
   spiritually, ‫ח״ו‬, he can still learn Torah, and that Torah is very
   dear to Hashem. From some ‫ספרים‬ it might be understood that it
   is not so; – but see what is written in the ‫דאיגרתא‬ ‫קריינא‬ o f the
   ‫יעקב‬ ‫קהלות‬ on the subject: He explains in detail why it can not be
   that our Sages meant that a person on a low spiritual level
   should not learn Torah. It would not be right to suggest that if a
   person is experiencing a spiritual decline, the Torah he learns is
   not holy and blessed. Our Sages say that when a wicked man
   occupies himself with Torah, the radiance within it will bring
   him back on to the right track, in other words they are saying
   that the Torah’s radiance is present even in Torah learnt by
   sinful people.
6. The Nefesh HaChaim too, writes to the effect that if someone
   finds himself struggling in the murky depths o f a sinful life, it is
   through learning Torah that he can get the spiritual strength he
   needs to escape from it. If he learns, Hashem will give him the
   spiritual strength to repent and put right the harm he has
   caused.
   The conclusion, therefore, is that someone who ‫ו‬ ‫חי‬ feels that
   he is backsliding spiritually, is even more strongly obligated to
   intensify his Torah studies, and devote himself to it with all his
   might and in every way possible.
7. It still remains true that the more righteous a person, the
   more his learning builds up his relationship with Hashem and
   brings his soul more of His exalted light. All the same, even for
   someone who is not so righteous, or going through a temporary
   spiritual depression, learning Torah is an extremely powerful
   force which actively draws him closer to Hashem and His exalted
   light.