Question

I was always taught that Torah is acquired through toil, but also through prayer—both communal prayers asking God to grant us Torah, and also prayer at a time when I don’t understand something and I ask to know. I heard a story (and if you think it has no basis, just ignore the question—because I understand and accept your approach to stories) that someone asked the Noda B'Yehuda a difficult question, and he had a very hard time with it and told him he would get back to him. In the meantime, the questioner asked the head of the religious court in that place, and the head of the religious court also didn’t know. He was terribly embarrassed, went into his room, and for close to half an hour prayed to God with tears that He should help him, and the gates of wisdom opened for him; he went and answered the questioner that very day. After three days of mental toil, the Noda B'Yehuda also had an answer—exactly the same one—and he went to tell the questioner the answer, but the questioner explained to him that that very day he had already been answered by the head of the religious court. The Noda B'Yehuda found this astonishing, so he went to ask him how he had managed to resolve the question so quickly, and he told him what had happened. And the Noda B'Yehuda’s response was: “That’s not worth as much done that way. I arrived at the answer through toil in Torah.” Again, assuming there is a whiff of truth to the story, what do you think of it?