Accepting the Torah Without Enthusiasm:
On Shavuos, everyone enthusiastically accepts the Torah and commits to increase their Torah study, both in quality and quantity. However, as soon as the yomtov is over, the enthusiasm wanes. Still and all, one should keep up his commitment, even if he doesn’t feel excited about it. The Sefarim Hakedoshim state that even Torah learned without enthusiasm is very valuable and desired by Hashem, and it will ultimately lead to a genuine desire to learn.
The concept of pushing oneself to learn even if one doesn’t feel a desire to do so, is learned from the spectacle at Har Sinai. The Toldos Yaakov Yosef zy”a (in Sefer Ben Poras Yosef) quotes the Baal Shem Tov zy”a as explaining the Gemara that says that Hashem lifted the mountain over the heads of Klal Yisroel and forced them to accept the Torah as follows:
Hashem held the mountain over Klal Yisroel’s head to teach us that we must learn Torah and serve Hashem even when we don’t feel any desire to do so. Even if we don’t want to do it, we are not free to choose not to. We still have to do it against our will, as if a mountain is being held over us and forcing us. This is a good thing for us. It makes us do the right thing and learn Torah and serve Hashem at all times, even if we don’t feel like doing it, and we still will be rewarded for it. And when someone learns Torah even though he doesn’t want to, he should say it loud so that he should be doing an action, and that action will be considered an action of a mitzvah.
