No Brain, No Gain

Why did the midwives who risked their lives earn houses of kehuna and malchus, and not a house of Torah? Isn't Torah the greatest reward there is? A question on the Gemara in Sotah opens into the Mesillas Yesharim, and why Pharaoh's crushing workload is the same trick the yetzer hara plays on every busy person today. Is the piece of chocolate that helps you learn a mitzvah or a luxury? And what did a fourteen-year-old boy write in the small notebook his family found only after he was gone? Where is your own ship heading?