Let My People Know

"The appropriate emotion to have when learning Torah"

 

It is possible to learn Torah as one learns any other subject–as a college major, for instance, or for intellectual pleasure-with no emotional attachment to its deeper meaning.

To prevent this, a person must remain aware of what it means to learn Torah. 

It is essentially a call to God, in the name of God, a recognition that he is not alone but standing before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, speaking together with Him and thinking together with Him.

The divine speech now speaks with his words, and the divine thought appears in his thoughts–they are so intermixed and connected that they are fused into one.

When a person is aware of all this, a great fear will fall upon him–and that is the appropriate emotion to have when learning Torah. 

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From Understanding the Tanya, Ch.37,  by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz