Bible Digestion in Israel (and the World at large...)

Here's an article i liked in Haaretz Newspaper (by Yair Hoffman)- It touches on the journalist's chance meeting with a religious authourity and discovering the man unaware of some very basic facts around the bible- such as different versions, translations & the canonical history of the Masoretic Text!                                                      
Why the article was of interest were due to his two paragraphs where he focuses on the importance for general society to understand these basic facts about the development of this religious text.....

        "Indeed, not every textual finding is of interest outside of scholarly circles. Yet the image that takes shape when the findings are put together is vitally important. Awareness of the processes by which the Bible was written and passed down, and knowledge of nuances and differences in its various versions, confer to the reader a historical dimension crucial for the understanding of the cultural essence of the sacredness that generations of faithful have attributed to the Bible.

        "Anyone who grasps that the Bible we have in hand is not the "first" version of the holy book will not be susceptible to the pseudo-kabbalist masters who purport to predict the future based on the text. In addition, awareness of the existence of various versions of the Bible, and the process by which they were relayed from generation to generation, impedes fundamentalism and is a prerequisite for the development of a rational, cultural approach to the Bible, one that regards the text as an exemplary human creation.  

                                                                                                                           A Samaritan Torah scroll.