“To observe, to perform all His commandments” – Rabbi Shimon ben Ḥalafta said: Anyone who studied matters of Torah but does not fulfill them, his punishment is harsher than one who did not study at all. To what is the matter comparable? It is to a king who had an orchard and he introduced two sharecroppers into it. One would plant trees and chop them down, and one did not plant at all and did not chop them down.
At whom was the king angry? Is it not to the one who would plant and chop them down? So, anyone who studied matters of Torah but does not fulfill them, his punishment is harsher than one who did not study at all. From where is it derived?
“Grace will be granted to the evil one who did not study righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10), but if one studied but did not fulfill, he will not be granted grace. That is, “to observe, to perform all His commandments.”