why does my scoreboard not work?

First off, your objective is a synax error. The correct way is:

/scoreboard objectives add torchLever minecraft.custom:minecraft.talked_to_villager

As can be seen on the minecraft wiki (https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Scoreboard#Objectives).

Secondly, your execute command is needlessly complicated. Though it may seem pretty simple at first glance, there is an even simpler and more efficient way to execute players with a score, or many scores:

execute as @a[scores={torchLever=1..}] run say hi

As can be seen on the minecraft wiki (https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Commands#Usage, scroll down to "target selector arguments).

Since you didn't specify what version of minecraft you're using, I assumed it was 1.13 Java Edition.