Almost by definition, Judaism is a rejection of Jesus as anything more than another Jewish man, perhaps a nice one, but not in any way divine.
All traditional Jewish sources agree on several issues germane to this:
1) The Messiah will herald in an endless era of world peace. 2) God has no physical presence, and cannot “father” a child. 3) The Torah (Old Testament) cannot be changed or abrogated. 4) Deeds are as important, if not more so than faith.
While virtually all of the codifiers of Jewish law through the ages agree on these issues, and thus cannot accept Jesus, there is an even more basic reason for this rejection: Had the Torah wanted man to change his beliefs, it would not have several times iterated that “these beliefs shall in no way ever be diminished or added to”. It is certainly at least logical to think that the Torah would have predicted that someday Jesus would be born, and therefore predicted his coming, yet it does not do so! (The attempts by the early Christians to claim the sentence “behold a virgin”, etc. are based on the incorrect and either ignorant or disingenuous mistranslation of the Hebrew “Alma” (girl) to “betula” (virgin”.)
Added to this is the very obvious and distinctly visible failure of Jesus to usher in an era of world peace, most strongly noticed by Jews following the rise of Christianity, and especially so during the crusades, and closely followed by the inquisition. Matthew in chapter 11 quotes Jesus as saying, “I come not to send peace, but a sword”, anathema to Jewish belief.
Importance of Learning in Judaism
More yet: Learning has always been an integral part of Judaism, and indeed the Torah itself commands one to study it every day and every night. Yet when the New Testament was written, several different sources attest that Jesus, as well as the disciples, prided themselves on their ignorance of Jewish law, this at a time when they were claiming to minister ONLY to the Jews! (See John 7, Acts 4, and many others) Incidentally, this also puts the lie to the common traditional claim that Jesus himself was a Rabbi.
No room for Miracles
Also, within Judaism, there is no room for miracles contrary to nature unless needed by many and witnessed by many, such as the plagues of Egypt or the parting of the Red sea. The Jewish Messiah, whoever he is, will be born of the natural union of a man and a woman, and there is no reason to be ashamed of that fact, for Judaism also rejects the concept of original sin, the belief that forced the church to conceive the Virgin birth in the first place.
Finally, and most importantly, every fiber of original Jewish belief demands that one be good, and kind, and charitable, and so on. Belief is good, too, but less important, and thus the entire concept of doing bad or sinning and later professing faith and being absolved by a “third party” (read priest) is anathema.
It is this set of beliefs that is so totally at odds with belief in Jesus that has led to the dramatic expulsion from the fold of any Jew who accepted Him. The same reaction is why virtually all Jews who know anything about their religion scoff at the concept of the Jews for Jesus groups, knowing that any Jews that are involved there are surely very ignorant of their Judaism.
My intention in this article is to simply articulate why belief in Jesus is incompatible with Judaism. I apologize in advance in case I have offended anyone unintentionally. Jewish beliefs prefer that non-Jews SHOULD believe in some form of monotheism, and while Jews don’t proselytize, they encourage gentiles to believe and attend their churches.
