The Legacy of Reb Menachem Rikant
Reb Menachem Rikanti (a rishon who lived in the era of the Rosh and the Rashba) is an example of someone who reached very high levels in Torah due to the combination of tefillah and hasmadah. His story is written in the hakdamah of his Sefer, the "Rikanti".
Reb Menachem Rikanti loved Torah, but he was born with a very weak mind. He prayed a lot, and he fasted that Hashem should open his heart and mind to understand Torah. Once, on one of his fast days, as he prayed to be able to learn Torah, he fell asleep in the beis medresh. In his dream, he saw someone holding a bottle of water in his hand. This man woke up Reb Menachem Rikanti and told him to drink from the water. Before Reb Menachem finished drinking, the man disappeared. Reb Menachem returned to his studies, and he saw that his mind was sharp. He had become a new person. That's when he wrote his commentaries on the Torah…"
This occurred when Reb Menachem Rikanti was approximately eighty years old — two years before his petirah. All the tefillos of his life paid off, and in the last two years of his life, he wrote wondrous sefarim, studied [to this day] by scholars. The Steipler Gaon, zt'l, (Chayei Olam vol.2, 12) brings this story and writes, "Even if one has a weak mind, if he places all his strength in studying Torah, he will receive siyata dishmaya and become a gadol in Torah, even if it is beyond his natural abilities."
--Torah Wellsprings
The Unlikely Talmid Chacham
A 17-year-old bachur came to the Chasam Sofer's yeshiva in Dreznitz and told the Chasam Sofer that he wants to join the yeshiva and begin learning Torah. The bachurim who heard him say this, laughed because they knew that this bachur had never learned Torah before. The Chasam Sofer rebuked them, "Why do you laugh? Whoever wants to learn can join the yeshiva." The Chasam Sofer asked several bachurim to contribute one hour of their day to learn with the new bachur, which they did.
However, the bachur still wasn't learning well because, in addition to having no background in Torah, the bachur had a terrible memory. Even if he reviewed something a hundred times, he forgot it by the next day. But the bachur so much wanted to succeed in Torah, so he didn’t give up. He kept learning with hasmadah with the chavrusos that the Chasam Sofer arranged for him. Chazal say, "When one wants to be pure, Heaven helps him" and indeed, this bachur became a great talmid chacham and was renowned for his yirei shamayim. He held rabbanic positions, and was one of the rabbanim in the Mattersdorf beis din (under the auspices of the Chasam Sofer). Later he was the rav of Shleining, and then the head of the beis din in Neizetz.
As the Chasam Sofer predicted, if one studies Torah with hasmadah, he will have siyata dishmaya, and he can succeed.
--Torah Wellsprings: Collected Thoughts from Rabbi Elimelech Biderman.