The Torah contains within it many worlds.
The themes, the language, all of the myriad ways in which to understand and interpret it – all of these are worlds that both exist independently and are connected to one another, inextricably linked from without and from within.
But from the totality of the Torah’s manifold shades of meaning, what emerges is that the Torah is essentially “the book of the chronicles of man.”
The Torah – addressing, in particular, the Jewish people and the Jewish individual – helps the reader understand not only what happened in the past and what ought to happen in the future, but also the meaning of his own life.
The Torah serves as a kind of wondrous looking glass in which we can simultaneously see the end of existence and our own reflection, and within that reflection not only are our outer facades visible, but the image of our true inner selves as well.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz