[aruanan]

Any would-be prophet or miracle worker (even one who rises from the dead...and by the way, all non-Jews, note well-— ALMOST ALL of the rabbis of the Mishnaic and Talmudic era (1st-7th centuries) could raise the dead-—

You don't see the origin of this in the effort of first century Jews to redefine their system in reaction to nascent Christianity. "Oh, yeah? He can raise the dead? Big deal, we can all do that!" Since the first century there has been Christianity and there has been hopelessly reactionary Judaism ("Hey, first off, we are NOT that thing over there!" The shema, "Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" has inevitably carried the subtext, "And there's no way in the world that it's Jesus!"). Of the Judaism that existed prior to the first century, there remains but a long and sad echo.

[Phinneous]

“You don’t see...?” Nope. How could I explain to you that Judaism now is exactly as it should be (without a temple mind you?) Judaism exists to bring G-d “down” to earth. A Jew’s commandment, like the twice-daily required recitation of the “Hear Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is one” prayer you reference, is a commandment given to Jews by G-d and it’s purpose is to infuse holiness into the world. If G-d removes our temple (and by the way will rebuild it Himself...no demolition required in case anyone has funny ideas) then the way we go about our mission is modified and we carry on with our sad echo of pre-1st century ways. I could calmly scream from the rooftops that Judaism and its monotheism is so different than other religions, our philosophy is so all-encompassing (there is no other way to explain 2,000,000 people being given a Torah and a mission) and that our faith is not even like yours...we don’t technically speaking, believe in these things, we KNOW them precisely because of an un-broken tradition from Sinai.

Part of the class, and the thing to which Christians and Moslems (and Mormons for that matter) must answer to—listen to the class I posted— is that ONE MAN made claims that sparked a following. Do you believe him? Well, sure, he did a miracle! But the Torah warns about it 1300 years before that we should only believe a potential prophet who doesn’t change Torah.... so no dude, every Jew in this thread has been saying-— no JC for Jews.

BUT, and let’s stir the pot for the evangelicals.... as long as Mitt follows the seven laws: http://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/62221/jewish/Universal-Morality.htm, then he’s every bit the “ritgheous gentile” that any stock Christian could be. (if only, and here is the real spoiler, if only the first of those seven laws didn’t negate a trinity completely.)

Non-Jews have to prove (to themselves, not to Jews) that one “prophet” was god/special/a leader, or that one arab came out of a cave and had a revelation for a new religion, Allah, etc, and still, if they truly studies (go find an Orthodox Jew...he won’t bite) the basis of their religions, the Torah, they would realize they are obligated by seven commandments from G-d, and to go master that before any NT or Koran.