There are many answers to the question and the next question which it evokes i.e. why study Talmud?, but I have not seen any better than the one offered by Professor Jacob Neusner, one of the most important talmudists of the past half century.
Interviewed by the Jerusalem Post, Professor Neunser had this to say: “the Sages represent a resource of thought and expression that provides a model of the social order and how society can deal with conflict and instability….We study the classics of any civilization to find viable examples of what we can be ourselves, of our own potential. The age that confronted the Holocaust should understand the Sages’ discussion of the destruction of the Temple, of rebuilding a social order.”
Why do you study the texts which are sacred to you?