Logic dictates that the better I understand how someone thinks, the more connected I feel to them. Torah, being God’s thought, becomes the bridge. Fair play. But what if someone else is just better at it? A Talmudic genius, a born tzaddik, or perhaps someone with the financial backing to allow him to study Torah at the exclusion of all else. How can my sluggish, fumbling effort possibly land me a similar spiritual intimacy? The answer you usually hear is that Hashem will even it out later. The soul gets an Olam Haba upgrade, a celestial software patch for everything we couldn’t perfect down here. Yet, to me, that answer always tasted like soppy theological blancmange. It’s too crowbarred. Could it be true? Maybe. But emotionally? I’ve never integrated it.