Expanding "How to look at Torah" into the Context of our Classroom Philosophy

In the section “How to look at Torah” there were a few lines that I thought were particularly relevant to our technique of studying religion—in relevance to the “big picture.” The lines “look only at the soul, root of all, real Torah! In the time to come they are destined to look the soul of the soul of Torah!” I found particularly interesting because they illustrate the importance of studying the historical context of religion. The “soul of the soul of the Torah” seems to emphasize viewing the Torah from a historical perspective- a perspective similar to the one we have adopted in order to examine religion. The Zohar also notes, “The soul of the doul is the Holy Ancient One. All is connected, this one to that one.” (44) This line struck me as even more important because of the phrase “all is connected, this one to that one.” The articles we have been discussing seem to build upon one another--each new article contained certain elements that were prevalent in previous articles. The study of Neolithic, Paleolithic and Holecene art is a good example. Along with each cultures evolution of artwork, spirituality seemed to evolve along with it. When the Zohar notes that “all is connected, this one to that one,” it make me realize that despite the stark differences among religious cultures and denominations, it seems that religion has stemmed from a common background- a background that took place over thousands of years and was built by hundreds of different cultures. To me, that is the big picture.