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express his meritorious side. Even if he stumbles a great The holy Ohr Hachaim (Leviticus 14) comments that the
deal, heaven have mercy, since he rejects these impediments Gemara’s statement that whoever studies the Torah on the sacrifices
and wants to be in accord with Hashem’s will, he emerges is considered as though he brought a sacrifice applies more broadly
victorious in judgment. to the entire Torah. He writes:
In regard to every mitzvah that a person cannot perform,
when he studies this mitzvah in the Torah, it is as though
he performed it. That is the meaning of the statement,
“If in My laws you go and My commandments you shall
If a person yearns for Torah and mitzvot, it is impossible guard...” (Leviticus 26:3). Those mitzvot that you cannot
that he will end up in Gehennom. Even if he descends perform, “you shall guard”—in the sense that you shall
there, he will immediately dart up like an arrow from a await [and anticipate] the time when you will be able to
bow, because after a person’s death he is drawn to the perform them. As you do so, consider it as though you
place that he had yearned for while he had been alive. have performed them. And so the verse states, “And
you shall do them” (ibid.), meaning: “I reward you not
(Shem Mishmuel in the name of his father, the Avnei Nezer) only for your thought but as though you have performed
the deed.” And it is with this [intent] that a person must
learn the Torah’s mitzvot and intend to do them.

Similarly, the Sefat Emet (Acharei 5632) teaches:

The verse states, “Which a person will do and live by
them” (Leviticus 18:5). This refers to the future [i.e., the
verse is written in the future tense]. That means that in
all of a person’s thoughts he must always be ready to
do the will of God, blessed be He. That will give him
vitality and joy. That is called “guarding the mitzvot”:
constantly sitting, hoping and awaiting: When will I be
able to do God’s will? As a result, when this person is
able, he will do so properly. And so the verse continues,
“If in My laws you go and My commandments you shall
guard, which a person will do and live by them,” because
this vitality always exists as a result of a person guarding
and keeping the mitzvot.

And the Ben Ish Chai (Ve’etchanan 301) teaches:

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