You understand the arguments. It is not a mistake that intellectual converts to Christianity mostly become Catholics.
The Catholic/Orthodox Tradition does indeed mimic the way Jewish mesorah is transmitted. Protestantism and its offshoots do not. Mimicry is not the real thing.
The Christian path does indeed lead to the Divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, the sinlessness of Mary, the authority of the Pope and the Church, and holidays like Christmas and Easter.
It seems to me that the only three defensible intellectual positions are Catholicism, Orthodox Judaism, and a monotheistic Deism that is agnostic about revelation which would be a very depressing state.
I should mention that one of the two scriptural teachers that has influenced me most was a disciple of Cyrus Gordon, and I have, to the extent that I have been able, been shamelessly plundering the Rabbis for exegetical techniques.
I am of the opinion that the body of revelation is far too vast for anyone to begin to master it, and if an individual truly devotes himself to it, most of what he himself learns will not be passed on—for a majority of it to be passed on would require having extremely attentive disciples, and frankly disciples who spent to much time attending to their master and not enough time in meditation/contemplation. John of the Cross, insofar as articulation goes, is the deepest Catholic mystic, but he left behind ample indications that what he passed on was a lowly fragment of what he had experienced.
I personally hold that in the first four centuries, so many Christians were grazing in so many different directions over the rich fields that many of the Jewish exegetical techniques were lost within Christian circles. As the theological conclusions could generally be reached in many different ways, remembering all the ways of arriving at them was not so important (and for the individual, impossible), but they remain a rich field to be tapped. My screen name is quite deliberate, but I think that philosophically I borrow even more from the Rabbis than my namesake—or rather, as I think of it, reclaim a part of the apostolic heritage that has not been terribly well preserved by its heirs.
All is so very rich.
I conclude my posting for the year with a passage from St. Ephrem, a late third and very early fourth century scholar who is the only deacon and only Doctor of the Church who hails from the Persian regions. I have concluded my introductory Scripture course by reading this passage for about a decade now, as it sums up the happy futility of trying to lead anyone through sacred writings.
Lord, who can comprehend even one of your words? We lose more of it than we grasp, like those who drink from a living spring. For God’s word offers different facets according to the capacity of the listener, and the Lord has portrayed his message in many colors, so that whoever gazes upon it can see in it what suits him. Within it he has buried manifold treasures, so that each of us might grow rich in seeking them out.
The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. It is like that rock which was struck open in the wilderness, from which all were offered spiritual drink. As the Apostle says: They ate spiritual food and they drank spiritual drink.
And so whenever anyone discovers some part of the treasure, he should not think that he has exhausted God’s word. Instead he should feel that this is all that he was able to find of the wealth contained in it. Nor should he say that the word is weak and sterile or look down on it simply because this portion was all that he happened to find. But precisely because he could not capture it all he should give thanks for its riches.
Be glad then that you are overwhelmed, and do not be saddened because he has overcome you. A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For if you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more; but if when your thirst is sated the spring is also dried up, then your victory would turn to harm.
Be thankful then for what you have received, and do not be saddened at all that such an abundance still remains. What you have received and attained is your present share, while what is left will be your heritage. For what you could not take at one time because of your weakness, you will be able to grasp at another if you only persevere. So do not foolishly try to drain in one draught what cannot be consumed all at once, and do not cease out of faintheartedness from what you will be able to absorb as time goes on.