As a former Orthodox Jew, I'd like to explain the perspective I was taught. However, I'm not looking to argue the validity of any group.
The Orthodox Jews I knew had absolutely nothing good to say about Messianic Jews. I don't think they even used that label, or the more common "Jews for Jesus." I heard "Jees for Jewsus" and "Jews for Yeshkua" (the k is used to separate a holy name from a mundane name; Orthodox Jews say "kelohim" in conversation and "elohim," a name of god, only in prayer... the idea is that because Jesus, or Yeshua, is worshiped as a deity, they make sure not to utter his name). I was frequently told not to talk to them, let alone any proselytizer. I knew an Orthodox college student who had a heated debate with a Messianic Jew outside a classroom; as you can imagine, one insisted the other was delusional and one insisted the other was in denial. They, like Reform, Conservative (and in the case of some Orthodox sects, even other Orthodox) Jews are considered heretics.
Because many Messianic Jews are not Jewish according to Orthodox standards (born to a Jewish mother), they don't proselytize to them directly. However, there are many websites and programs that the Orthodox have developed to bring "real" Jews who have been "duped" by Messianics back into the fold. Their primary tactics are:
1) Refuting the verses in the Old Testament that supposedly prophesy the coming of Christ (e.g. "a maiden will conceive a son" as opposed to "a virgin will conceive a son"),
2) Stressing verses that proclaim the oneness of god (Bamidbar/Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind."), and
3) De-legitimizing the New Testament by pointing out inconsistencies, such as Jesus's different genealogies (internal), or that Jesus can't be patrilineal descendent of King David, and thus the Moshiach/Messiah, since his supposed father is god (external).
I was stopped by a Messianic Jew when I was walking to a friend's house on the Sabbath (it was not hard to tell that I was Jewish). My friend, an older gentleman, did most of the talking. The conversation was mostly civil. The Messianic Jew didn't seem to know much about the Judaism we knew about. It turned out he actually wasn't even Jewish (on either side of his family). He seemed to understand why I could not accept Jesus as god because the Torah stated that god was one and not a man; he argued that because Jesus really is god, we should all worship him. Unfortunately, it ended with him proselytizing and my friend walking away annoyed.
Some other points:
The Oral Torah was handed down to Moses by God. Moses handed it down to the Jewish men, but it was not to be written. They handed it down to their sons and their students for countless generations, until some Rabbis thought it was a good idea to break the commandment to not write it down. Then they gradually continued to write more and more of it down, and further erode the idea that it is oral. to the point that such idea is essentially non-existent. But, yes, the Talmud is a compilation (and there are actually two Talmuds, the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, the Babylonian is what most people refer to when they say Talmud, however) of Oral Torah, that - despite coming directly from God - takes the form of a debate that at times has the winner not seem to be on any more logical ground than the loser.
I will not argue with your story, but this is what the Rabbis taught me: facing the Roman exile, the Jews were "forced" to write down the Mishnah in around 200CE, out of fear of losing their tradition. Later came the Gemara (also known as the Talmud), which elaborates on the Mishnah.
I personally believe that the rabbis may have had ulterior motives for writing down the law, but the above is what they teach Orthodox Jews.
Rabbinic Hellenistic Judaism rejected Christianity. Christianity rejected Rabbinic Hellenistic Judaism. The early Jewish Christians decided to hold their celebrations and fasts on different days than the Rabbinic Hellenistic Jews for this reason (see Didache of the 12 Apostles). Differences grew between the two groups. More Gentiles came in. Christians and RHJ's started holding Passover/Pascha on different days. Yada, yada, yada.
I was always a little confused by
the article on Judaism on OrthodoxWiki, which states "Judaism is a religion which has arisen after Jews have rejected and crucified the Messiah predicted by Old Testament prophets." I was always taught that Judaism came first, and Christianity was an offshoot of that. Is it a common belief among Orthodox (and perhaps non-Orthodox) Christians that the form of Judaism existent today is nothing more than a reaction to Christianity? I will not dispute this, but it certainly differs from what the Rabbis say.
Also, it's interesting that Nicholas uses the term "Hellenistic." Traditionally, the story of Hannukah is about the malevolent, polytheistic Hellenist Greeks enticing Jews to embrace their culture and compromise the oral and written laws of the Pharisees. These Hellenists were sometimes associated with a group known as the Saducees, although the two were not the same. The Macabees led the revolt against the Hellenists and kept straight-up "Rabbinic" Judaism in power. I haven't read the book of Macabees, as it is considered apocryphal by the Orthodox, so I'm not sure if the story differs there; I do plan to read it sometime though.
