The Talmud in Menachot 104b notes the special significance of the voluntary minchah sacrifice, an offering of grain which was generally brought by the poor.  

The minchah was simpler and less impressive than the costlier animal sacrifices, but the Torah expresses special praise for the individual offering a minchah, referring to them with the term nefesh, meaning “soul”. As Rashi writes, a pauper offering a small, simple minchah is considered to have sacrificed his soul in order to partake in the ritual. 

Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein applied the Talmud’s statement in other areas. He gave the example of a person with a genuine and passionate commitment to Torah study, but who does not have the luxury of devoting large amounts of time to learning, due to the difficulties faced securing a livelihood.  

If such demands leave the person with hardly any free time for Torah study, but they nevertheless manage to allocate a small amount of time each day for learning, then this time is akin to the humble minchah offering brought by a pauper. 

It is precious because it entails great sacrifice. Just as a meagre minchah offering is deemed more valuable than a robust offering brought by a wealthy person, similarly any time allocated for Torah study by a harried, pressured individual working to support their family is worth more than a full day of intensive study by somebody who does not have such pressures. 

Rabbi Levenstein made these remarks to the students of the Mir Yeshivah when they arrived in Shanghai, where they had fled during World War II. The turmoil of relocating to a different continent across the world and living in a new, foreign environment quite obviously compromised the students’ ability to realise their scholarly and spiritual aspirations.  

Rabbi Levenstein sought to assure them that although they would likely be unable to achieve to the same extent under the current circumstances as they did back in Europe, nevertheless, their modest achievements were precious like the pauper’s minchah. In situations of great challenge, small achievements are especially meaningful, even more so than great achievements reached under favourable conditions.