Chasidut sur Avot 4:17

The matter is like this: The Torah is from the Heavens; and when you study Torah, you rise to the Heavens - you rise to God and become united with Him. And He, may He be blessed, is drawn into your brain and your heart and even dwells in your body. For what is the rationale of the Torah that you are analyzing? God gave the Torah, and this rationale is God's knowledge! For why is this and that a commandment? Because God wanted it. Since you have aroused your spirit and revealed some of it and you are exerting it on the Torah and its analysis, your spirit and your brain are clinging to God. And when you understand a thought from the words of the Torah, God's reasoning is now, as it were, found in you - as is discussed in the holy books about this. So when you arouse your will for the Torah and the commandments, this will is not yours. Rather it is He, as it were, that now wills the Torah and the commandments in you. For this is the essence of the Torah and the commandments that God wants, and this will of His is now being revealed in you. So you are feeling the will of God for the Torah and the commandments in you. Is there a greater unification than this? He, may He be blessed - who is higher than all of the worlds, the One with no limit and no end, such that even the angels ask, "Where is the place of His glory" - is united with you and dwelling inside of you! And after this, why should you wonder about the words of the Mishnah (Avot 4:17), "More precious is one hour in repentance and good deeds in this world, than all the life of the world to come?" And is there greater elevation and more of a Garden of Eden than this?!? And this is the enjoyment and the Garden of Eden that you feel at the time that you study Torah and after you study Torah. You will not know it with your physical mind, but your spirit inside will delight and rejoice from this contact with your Father in the Heavens. And you will delight more when you understand a difficult matter than after the study of an easy matter. For since the matter was more difficult and you needed to gather all the abilities of your spirit - and even of your body - in this work, you will have made a greater part of your spirit and strength cling to the Father of souls and the Master of spirits. So you will delight more. But upon an easier matter on which you only expended a little effort, you will have only brought out a smaller part of your spirit to this clinging with the Most High. So this is a lesser delight for the spirit. And if a student delights more after studying an easy matter than a difficult one, it is a sign that his delight is not truly the delight of the Garden of Eden, but rather from the lessening of work; and his delight is from his leisure and his laxness! But truthfully, is there anything easy in the Torah? For example, when you begin to study [Talmud], they taught you [the section], "Two people are grabbing [a garment]," in Bava Metzia, which is easy for a child. But is it truly easy? For how much did the Tosafists and the other commentators - early and late - toil, dig and delve into it! And there is even room for you to make your mark upon it. If you strive and merit, you will still find more there. So in every place and in every topic, you can strive and delve and bring out a larger part of your strength, your spirit and your soul - to have it cling to the Torah and to the Eis Sof who is found in it.

Another way of understanding the verse: ‎ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת ‏כהנים‎. We have a tradition according to which there are three ‎‎“crowns” that can be worn by select people. (Avot 4,17) ‎They are: 1) the crown of the Torah; 2) the crown of the ‎priesthood. 3) the crown of kingship. The only one of these ‎‎“crowns” that can be handed down through inheritance from ‎father to son is the crown of the priesthood. In our verse the ‎concept of holiness through inheritance is expanded to include ‎the entire Jewish people as a whole. G’d assures Moses that as a ‎result of our performing His commandments we have all acquired ‎a hereditary claim to holiness. In Moses’ parting speech to his ‎people, Deuteronomy 32,9, he expands on this theme by saying: ‎כי חלק ה' עמו עקב חבל נחלתו‎, “for the Lord’s portion is His people, ‎Yaakov His own inheritance.” Moses implies that G’d has chosen ‎the Jewish people on account of the holiness transmitted to them ‎by their patriarchs which had become part of their genes. This is ‎the deeper meaning of the expression ‎ממלכת כהנים‎.‎