Every mitzva one performs creates a bond with the Divine that transcends the individual’s intellectual capabilities.
The very fact that one fulfills God’s will forges a bond and connection with Him, regardless of whether or not the person is aware of it. Torah study, on the other hand, is at a higher level.
When engaged in the study of Torah, one employs not only the physical, but also the spiritual elements of his being.
It follows that the impact the mitzva of Torah study has upon the person engaged in it is not lost in an ethereal realm, hovering just out of the person’s reach.
Rather, it penetrates the innermost chambers of his soul, effecting a profound change in the deepest recesses of his consciousness.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz