I said all (real) Jews are equally Jewish, from Moses to Harvey Finkelstein. There is a binary, equal, G-dly soul.
Re letters vs John’s vision? It is a classic agree to disagree— I don’t believe in any NT prophecy. The opening argument to the video class was that “Let’s assume Acts is authentic...” Someone in the thread earlier counted the witnesses to the resurrection. Big deal (to the Jew....) Didn’t Elisha already resurrect a child? There is no innovation in resurrection. There is also no innovation in trying to trick Jews I guess.
I don’t want to put words in Rabbi Skobac’s mouth, but Jews believe all Christianity, “New” anything, is heresy (for Jews. Christians should live moral lives based on the 7 Noahide laws of course.) It’s a great deal actually. No ‘pesky’ commandments to follow but 7. (Pesky in quotes because they are gold for Jews. Diamonds. Life itself.)
One more job description of a kabbalist, by the way, is to take the Hebrew word for anything in creation, and connect it back to its source in the 10 utterances of creation (the 9 “let there be’s” and the 1 “In the beginning.”) “Connect it” is part of the class on The Gates of Unity and Faith that I linked to earlier. Some kabbalists just theoretically ‘connect’ objects/concepts of our world to their G-dly root. Others actually create reality. Want more fodder (for Greetings_Puny_Humans-types?)
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2293219/jewish/Is-the-Lab-Created-Burger-Kosher.htm
(Stories of Kabbalists creating beef vis-a-vis modern questions of test-tube-grown meat.....)
What you believe is the extra-Biblical mystical notions of certain Jews, the Kabbalists, but not certain other Jews, namely John, the apostles, and the early church. Kinda selective in which Jews you choose to believe it appears to me.
Christianity is a prophetic religion, so, yes, you are right in putting such emphasis on it. Jews like John saw Christ everywhere in the prophetic scriptures; chief reason being they had their understanding opened “that they might understand the scriptures,” Christ’s death and resurrection revealed to them in the prophets, Luke 24:45-47.
Your understanding could be opened also, if you would only choose the right Jews to open your understanding. John and the apostles had their understanding opened, none of these Jews in whom you trust for interpreting prophecy have had their understanding opened. They follow visions of their own heart, which the NT calls "the flesh." Its of man, not God.