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 involved.
Gemara (mishnaic 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.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From The Candle of God by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz