The school was thus the earthly reflection of its heavenly counterpart. "Torah" was more than laws and legends. The master was more than a teacher. The disciple sought something other than mere education. The issues were salvific and the goal eternity, conquest of "this world" and attainment of the world to come. Certainty lay in the conviction that God through Moses "our rabbi" had long ago laid down the way to heaven, and the path led directly to the school house door.
- from pages 96-97, First Century Judaism in Crisis