The Alter Rebbe tells us that the forefathers are the Merkava – the Chariot of God. Just as a chariot does only the will of its owner, so too did the forefathers fulfill the will of God completely. Their every movement, their every word, their every thought was directed to God and for His purpose.
The Alter Rebbe is of course telling us this for good reason. Nevertheless, Torah is different to Mitzvah performance. When one engages in Torah, one connects directly with God Himself. It is not just that we are interacting with the limbs of God and connecting in an external manner, but rather, the very words of the Torah are God as He manifests Himself – so to speak – within this physical world. Reading those words and thinking about them, meditating over them – connects one directly with God. It is even higher than Mitzvah performance.
Torah is the mind of God. His will – whether something in Halachah should be “x” or “y” is His very essence. Therefore, when one studies these laws, one connects directly with God.
We are fortunate that God “hides Himself” within those letters of the Torah. This is the fact that while we study, we do not actually imagine that we are connecting with Him. Were we to feel that connection, we would expire in Divine ecstasy. God contracts Himself into the letters of the Torah so that we are able to benefit from the light without expiring. This is the mystery of the Tzimtzumim (the contractions) that God made in order to create this world and to reveal Himself within it.
But still – every person’s soul knows the truth and senses it at the time he is engaged in the study of Torah. Torah is greater than everything – even prayer, because through it, one unites completely with God. Even though one can affect all sorts of unifications through prayer – still the value of Torah is far greater.
