Torah's sobriquets of greatness and commoners are criticized and we learn lessons. Avraham shouldn't have exited Eretz Yisrael during the famine. (Ramban, B'reishis 12:10) Yaakov shouldn't have engaged Esav upon his return(B'reshis Rabbah 75:2) or played favorites among his children. (Shabbos 10b) The brothers shouldn't have contrived to rid themselves of their brother Yosef. (Yom Kippur Machzor, Mussaf)
Aren't such mundane improprieties common to all people? Fratricide, sibling rivalry, favoring one's children, spousal strife, familial discord, and miscalculated enemy engagement, are the building blocks of historical progression and intriguing novels. How could such tales constitute a spiritual engagement which propels us to the World to Come?
Maharal(Tiferes Yisrael, 11) answers that the difference between Hashem and the rest of Creation is that He is perfect and they are not. Therefore, any secular wisdom such as math, science, or psychology is study of imperfection. Engagement in such study can only yield achievement commensurate with its own identity which, ultimately, is imperfection. In contrast Torah study is Hashem's decrees upon Creation. By definition, since Hashem is perfect, His interface with Creation is the essential expression of that perfection. Therefore, when one studies a topic of insignificance and triviality in the Torah it is transformed into the most lofty of insights elucidating Hashem's perfection.
Torah study is really a discernment of Hashem's thoughts. Insight into Hashem's thoughts forges a connection with Him. Connection to Hashem hoists one beyond the temporal Universe of their sojourning. Thus, the Torah is the only device by which to achieve Olam Habah. It is our pathway beyond our own corporeal existence.
In With All My Heart, With All My Soul by B.D. Da'Ehu the author writes that the Greeks worshiped humans. This worship promulgated them to oppose davening because it necessitated dependence on others. Dependence engenders weakness. This, he explains, is a fallacious argument because davening allows one to connect with something beyond oneself which makes one greater.
With this insight we may understand Nedarim (39b) and Shabbos (88b) that the Torah's creation preceded the Universe's. The difficulty of this proclamation is striking. How can the Torah which contains stories of people's decisions that were commenced in the future exist before creation? Doesn't the Torah's existence at that point in time presuppose determinism and retard the free will of those individuals recounted in its record. Isn't that the question that the Ramban( Hilchos Teshuva 5:5) poses? Knowledges of the future is determinism of that future?
According to Maharal this query isn't an issue. The Torah existed before the Universe in the form of Hashem's perfection but not necessarily in its current expression. At Har Sinai Hashem choose to form the Torah's lessons and teachings with the past experiences of those that lived following the Universe's creation.
