CHARLES, you wrote to me,

Jake, my newfound Jewish friend, you and I seem to have much in common, in kind of an eclectic way. For me, this is just such an exciting time to be alive, and it's fascinating to compare ideas, beliefs, and experiences with someone as interesting as you!!!

Idem!

…and yes, I've learned recently that "Yeshua" is simply the current, popular spelling of what I guess is more properly spelled Yeoshua.

Correct.

Jake, you said that there is no evidence of a death sentence being imposed in Jesus' days. That's VERY interesting! Last night I read a Jewish rebuttal of the belief of some of the Lubavitcher' faithful that their recently deceased Rebbe will be resurrected to be the Moshiach. I had no idea how firmly ingrained in Jewish Oral Law --Talmud, etc.-- was an opposition to the concept of the Moshiach being resurrected for a "second coming". Undoubtedly, it is to a large degree a reaction to the absolutely abhorrent excesses of so-called Christianity through the ages. It was for me EXTREMELY interesting reading!

Remember that David was 'anointed' as king? The Jewish people were against having a king, because the tribes were intensely individualistic and there were frequent internecine wars. Samuel --the first Judge, i.e., the first chosen ruler-- liked his job, being therefore against the election of a king. But the situation with the Philistines was critical, and the people started to feel that a strong leader, as the other peoples had, would be the salvation. Samuel had to submit, and Saul was crowned.
Samuel made so much trouble to the king --in order to show that such popular choice had been a mistake-- that Saul, a sensitive but not robust soul, lost his mind. David became the people's idol, which made Saul even crazier. David became a brigand of dubious allegiance, but he had enormous charisma and luck. When Samuel's shenanigans led king Saul to his death, David was anointed king; he gave much security and pride to the Israelite tribes altogether.
After David's death, all the troubles came back with a vengeance, initiated by his son, Salomon, a spendthrift and ladies-man, who was mainly interested in himself and in building a Temple --mostly for his own glory. After his death --and the subsequent sundering and weakening of the Land of Israel-- came the invaders: Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonian-Greeks, Syrian-Greeks, and finally the Romans --after a brief independence under the Hasmoneans.

The people of the Land of Israel had adopted foreign beliefs in Babylon, had become more freethinking. They started to talk about redemption from all their interminable foreign oppressors. They yearned for a Messiah, the anointed glorious David in the body of one of his descendants, who with his sword would lead them to salvation from the Roman oppressor.
It was not to be. A visionary rabbi named Yeoshua, thought that not the Sword but Brotherly Love would triumph. He was completely wrong, but he offered a way that had not been tried before. He had a lovely charismatic personality and got himself quite a following --although not as much as Mohammed, the most successful of all, because this camel-driver had the most brilliant idea: Love, yes, but in Paradise, with 36 recycling virgins, as long as you died while enjoying killing infidels.

Obviously, there has been no First Coming for the Jews. The opposition to a false Messiah, Savior, or Anointed King, has nothing to do with any foreign religion but with the many individual Jews who have claimed to be the Saviors and have turned to be mentally imbalanced, causing great suffering and disillusion. One of them even converted to Islam!
{Note: "Moshiah" is in Yiddish. In Hebrew it is "Mashiach." A thick, oily substance (a cream) is called 'mishchah."} Kings, like David, were anointed, that is, rubbed with a thick substance; some time I'll post a short essay on the origins of that custom since the origins of society.

Again, this will undoubtedly sound unbelievable to you, but it was as if scales had been removed from my eyes, and my heart. I BELIEVED what I was reading. I simply can't express my shock and amazement at the time! I just KNEW that it was true. And this was G-d working in me. For me, there is simply no other logical explanation.

You didn't realize it, Charles, but you entered a state of altered consciousness, influenced by several factors, mostly by your need to believe. You became atheist basically because you had been searching for God and He had failed you. Your unconscious utilized the "Shoah" (The HOLOCAUST) for the following angry argument with God: "You expect me to believe that you are God? What kind of a god can permit his chosen children to be annihilated?"

Some day I will post on a psychoanalysis performed on a teacher who hated his dead father and did not believe in God. I received a letter from him afterwards, telling me that he now loved his father and had returned to God. His last dream in the analysis, which indicated that he was cured was, in short: He is in a circus, a woman is tied to a pole, a bull is about to gore her, he jumps, grabs the bull by the horns, tumbles it, unties the woman, and starts for Rome. Easy to interpret, right? Have you read "Quo Vadis?"