Our Gemara on Amud Beis offers segulos for wisdom and wealth:

אמר רבי יצחק: הרוצה שיחכים – ידרים, ושיעשיר – יצפין, וסימניך: שלחן בצפון ומנורה בדרום. ורבי יהושע בן לוי אמר: לעולם ידרים, שמתוך שמתחכם מתעשר – שנאמר: ארך ימים בימינה, בשמאלה עשר וכבוד״.

Rabbi Yitzḥak says: One who wishes to become wise should face south (during prayer), and one who wishes to become wealthy should face north. And your symbol for this is that in the Temple the Table, which symbolized blessing and abundance, was in the north, and the Candelabrum, which symbolized the light of wisdom, was in the south of the Sanctuary. 

The Beis Halevi (Shemos 19:5) notes that despite this geographical positioning, the subjective experience upon entering the Beis HaMikdash is that he will find the Menorah on the left side, and the Table on the right. The right and left in Jewish tradition represent the Good Inclination and the Evil inclination respectively, so there seems to be a contradictory message. The side of the Table which represents material success is on the right side, implying an association with the Good Inclination. Beis Halevi explains that when striving for material success, one’s intentions must be pure, otherwise it will lead to a spiritual and moral disaster. But when striving for spiritual and Torah aspirations, we have a tradition that even Torah study motivated by less pure intentions, such as to be admired, are worthwhile as the Torah will eventually lead the person to higher awareness and elevation of their motives (Nazir 23b). Therefore, the Table is on the right upon entry hints that material success absolutely must start with initial good intentions (symbolized by entry). However, Torah can be initiated even with compromised intentions, thus the Menorah is on the left.

This further emphasizes the unique aspect of Torah over every other pursuit. It confers and contains a spiritual charge that transcends the physical and technical aspects of the material. As we discussed at length in blogpost Psychology of the Daf, Bava Basra 8, the Torah speaks for itself in believing it can draw back the non-observant even when they study with insincere motives.

I’ll conclude with this observation about a public secular figure. Recently I watched an interview of a very funny comedian, Ari Shafir on Tucker Carlson. He’s a former Yeshiva Bochur who is now an unapologetic atheist with a foul mouth, but holds certain aspects of Orthodox life in high regard. His latest comedy show is about Judaism, and according to his own report, he took five years to research the material. Tucker, an astute student of human nature and provocative interviewer, sensed something was up and kept pressing him to explain why it took five years to research. Ari gave a rather lame answer as since it was about religion, he felt he had to get the facts right. What Shafir did not realize or could not fully admit, is that he couldn’t bear to get Torah wrong.  (Btw, many of his facts about Judaism were not correct, but I won’t fault him for at least trying.) You can take the bachur out of the yeshiva, but you can’t take the yeshiva out of the bachur.