One has to know that the thirst is for God. Talmud Torah, the study of Scripture, is not a continuing effort to learn something, whether it be information or instruction.
All these valuable and useful results are only by products.
The ultimate essence of Talmud Torah is in the interior engagement with it as a Divine message.
It is a need to be occupied with Torah as one is occupied with life itself, not as a fragmentary interest but as a framework within which all of mind and heart is in,
volved.
Gemara (Mishnahic and Talmudic elucidations of the Bible), for example, includes a vast range of subjects for the mind to dwell upon: farming know-how about seeds and seasons, legal instruction, religious inspiration, details about the human body, social customs–in fact almost all aspects of living in the world.
Thus, in many ways, it appears to be an accumulation of human wisdom and not very heavenly.
The point of study is to reveal the Infinite light of God in all this.
The effort required is to draw upon and extend this Divine light into the world below.
The Talmud tells us that the angels complained to God about this unfair discrimination:
Why give this Divine gift of Torah to man and not to us?
The Lord answered saying, The Torah commands:
Honor thy father and mother.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
But as for you angels, do you have parents?
Do you possess anything?
Have you any carnal desires?
What then do you need the Torah for?
Is it because you have heard that it was a Divine Revelation?
If so, it is not for celestial beings but for earthly beings, to help them reach beyond their earthbound state.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Candle of God by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz