Definitions – An Open Letter to “Concerned” Reader
Dear Concerned Reader
I am writing this letter not only in response to a recent comment of yours (https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2014/12/21/channuka-excerpt-from-contra-brown/#comment-16337 ) but my letter addresses your entire approach in your comments on this blog.
This blog was established in order to counter the efforts of missionaries to convert Jews. An essential part of resisting the missionary effort is the process of exposing the false foundations of Christianity.
It seems that this does not sit well with you (and please correct me if I have misunderstood your intentions). You would rather that all of us live in brotherhood and harmony (a goal to which I also aspire) and this means to you, that we not bad-mouth each other. You would rather that Jews go on being Jews but that they say nothing to discredit Christianity. After all, if Judaism is self-sufficient, why do Jews need to knock the foundations of Christianity?
Your mistake lies in this that you refuse to acknowledge that Christianity is nothing more than a statement about Judaism. The entire Christian religion is an attempt to define Judaism. Christianity claims that one Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah proclaimed by the Jewish prophets and Christianity insists that the loyalty that Christians bear in their heart toward Jesus is the very same loyalty encouraged by the Jewish Bible.
Your liberal concept of political correctness would deny us our right for self-definition. You would want us to accept the claims of the Church as another viable form of Judaism although the Church itself would never allow for our version of Judaism. You are disturbed that we define Judaism in a way that negates the claims of the missionaries and you would much rather that we present the world with a silly-putty Judaism that does not insult progressive Christians such as yourself. This has been the upshot of all of your comments on this blog.
In your effort to deny Judaism its definitions you have elevated your own shallow questions above the words that are written in the Bible you claim to revere.
You see “confusion” in the pages of the Bible. On the one hand you see God appearing in various forms and being worshiped in those manifestations and on the other hand you see Moses encouraging Israel to avoid worship of a form. You can only see a way out of this confusion by reducing the credibility of Moses’ words (after all – they are only a second hand report) and by arguing that Moses is only prohibiting the manufacture of a form for the sake of worship.
I will encourage you to read and to absorb the words that Moses is actually saying. I would also encourage you to ask yourself what was the covenant that Israel shared with God before Jesus appeared on the scene, and what methods did God set in place to preserve the integrity of that covenant. I would also encourage you to ask yourself why it is that those who saw themselves as a part of the covenant nation never saw the “confusion” that you see in the pages of scripture.
After you have taken my questions seriously I will encourage you to keep on commenting on this blog. The reason that I encourage comments is because I believe that open discussion will only lead people closer to the truth and my belief has been confirmed many times over since the establishment of this blog. But please do not speak in the name of political correctness as if that were an ideal that we should respect. If you believe that you have a piece of truth to share, share it. Because peace and harmony on earth will never come about when we deny each other the right to define ourselves for the sake of political correctness. According to the prophets of Israel, peace on earth will be achieved when the truth is revealed in its full glory.
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Thank You
Yisroel C. Blumenthal
1000 Verses - a project of Judaism Resources 
Political correctness constrains free speech and is a dangerous thing. Great post as usual.
I heard a Rabbi once say a Xtian would never be able to withstand the learning in a Yeshiva.
Concerned Reader saw confusion in the way that angels speak the voice of God in Torah. Perhaps he could consider that by calling them angels (messengers), the Torah is deliberately ruling out the concept that manifestations of God’s presence and word are in fact incarnations. They are in the world not ‘as God’, but on His behalf.
How can we tell for sure that this is the right message to get from the imagery, and that God wasn’t instead making a statement about the angel being one with Him? If Moses tells the people not to worship a form, and then presented them with an angel that has God’s name ‘in him’, then it’s quite clear how the people are meant to interact with that messenger. There’s no confusion.
In any case, if you aren’t praying to the physical object, body, light, sound, etc., then how can you say you are praying to something/someone in this world at all? And if the idea is that praying to the person represented there is any different somehow to the normal way of praying, then how is that right either?