Moshe was up on Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) for forty days and forty nights. Our Sages tell us that during these forty days Moshe did not eat, drink, nor sleep. We can understand how this happened from a story:

A king once came to a commoner and invited him to his treasure room. He told the commoner that he could grab whatever he wanted in the room full of gold for the next twenty-four hours. The commoner did not stop to eat nor sleep during those twenty-four hours. He grabbed all that he could so that at the end of the time, he had sacks and sacks full of treasures.

The same is with Moshe. Moshe knew that he only had a limited time to spend learning directly from G-d. Moshe wanted to grab as much as he could so he decided not to waste any time on eating nor sleeping.

This is the way we should be about our learning also. We should try not to waste any time at all. But before you throw away your bed and fridge, let me point out one important point. We are not on the level Moshe was on when he was on Har Sinai. This was a very high level to be on to stop himself from eating and sleeping for forty full days. It is impossible for us to do this. We should put as much energy as we have into learning, but we should not starve ourselves nor stay up if we cannot function without the proper amount of sleep. We should eat healthy foods a few times a day so we have energy to learn Torah and get as much sleep as we need so we are not zombies.

I was once speaking with a young man in yeshiva and the whole time I was speaking with him, he was rubbing his eyes. I told him that he should go to sleep but he told me that he wanted to learn more Torah. I told him that his Yetzer Hara (bad impulses) was getting the better of him. The Yetzer Hara was telling him to stay up very late every night because eventually, Heaven forbid, he would get sick and learn less Torah. The goal is to learn as much Torah as we can, but to do it within the natural requirements of ourselves.

We should use as much energy we have to grab the greatest treasure in this world: learning Torah!

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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