Musar for Kiddushin 59:20

And I know their excuses, that the times are difficult, etc. But, in truth, if they searched their souls they would know that the yetzer is only deceiving them. For in other things, which are only of physical benefit to their son, does not each one of them assist his son with all of his strength, even more than he is able? And sometimes, he even places his life in danger because of him, doing things which are against the din, both between man and his neighbor and between man and the L-rd. And he blesses himself in his heart, saying: "All will be well with me, for I am doing charity at all times by feeding my family." But when he must support his son in Torah, to know how to serve the L-rd, bringing both his son and himself to eternal life, as we shall adduce below from the midrashim of Chazal, he says that times are hard! And this is as Scripture states (Isaiah 93:2): "And not Me did you call upon, Jacob; for you grew weary with Me, O Israel" — "with Me," specifically. As we find on this verse in the Midrash, Esther Rabbah 3: "All day he is busy working and does not become weary; he prays, and he becomes weary!" And, in truth, the expenditures for the Torah study of his sons are outside of the expenditures for sustenance fixed for him on Rosh Hashanah, as Chazal have said (Beitzah 16a): "All the sustenance for man is fixed for him from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, except expenditures for Shabbath, …and expenditures for his sons' Torah studies, which, if he gives less, he is given less [by Heaven], and if he gives more, he is given more." Come and see what Chazal have said (Kiddushin 30a): "If one teaches his son's son Torah, Scripture reckons it unto him as if he had received it on Mount Sinai, viz. Devarim 4:9: 'And you shall impart them [(words of Torah)] to your sons and to the sons of your sons," followed by (Ibid. 10): 'the day you stood before the L-rd your G-d in Chorev.'" Also, through this, he merits long life for him and his sons, it being written (Ibid. 11:19): "And you shall teach them to your sons," followed by (Ibid. 21): "So that your days be prolonged and the days of your sons, etc."

After this, because of the greatness of our sins, troubles multiplied and our academies of study diminished. And the later Tosafot became very difficult for them to understand and they could not bear the burden. Then came other great ones and abridged those Tosafot, everyone according to his wisdom, to make this study easier for the man of his generation. And even in those days there were still men who knew all of the Talmud completely and knew the commandments from their knowledge of the Talmud, until it came about that the Jews were driven from France (1391), where they were holding strongly to the Torah and were studying it with great diligence, just as the Early Sages had done in the days of the Talmud, when the principal goal of study was to review the Talmud over and over again in order to fulfill what they said (Sifré to Deut. 6:7, Kiddushin 30a), "And ye shall teach them diligently to thy children": "May the words of the Torah be sharp in your mouth, so that if anyone should ask you a matter of law you will not stutter and give him any answer but you will give him the corect answer at once." For it is impossible that the commandments will be on the tip of a man's tongue, so that he can readily respond to a questioner, unless he has reviewed many times, as they said, "He who has repeated his chapter one hundred times is not to be compared with him who has repeated it a hundred and one times" (Hagigah 9b).