Jesus and Shneerson - two of a kind

I don’t know what to say. I discovered a video yesterday on Fifty Shekel’s website that I had intended on only watching a few minutes but couldn’t draw my eyes away for the full half an hour. In that time, I watched a Jewish boy raised in an Orthodox setting as he accepted Jesus as what he claims to be THE Jewish Messiah. I have already considered Messianic Jews a bit nutty. Without ever speaking with one, I drew a conclusion (and perhaps bought in to the stereotype) that they were confused individuals who couldn’t decide if they wanted to be Jewish or Christian.
This is what I was able to draw upon completing the assignments for tomorrow’s class: These people are born Jewish, meaning they have at least one Jewish parent. On the video “Sid Roth’s ‘It’s Supernatural!’” we learn that Aviad Cohen led what mainstream folk would consider a legitimate life. He was a religious boy who grew into a religious man. He went to Yeshiva in high school, he was living in New York and dedicated himself to the practices of Orthodox Judaism as he simultaneously developed his love and skills as a musician. Once the Orthodox lifestyle became too much and he lost trust in his rabbis as his mentors, he began searching for a Truth. He said, “I just wanted to be a nice Jewish boy.” For as long as he lived, he was taught that because he was a Jew, he was a chosen person. But he wanted a greater understanding; he wanted to know why he was taught to adopt this life of an observant Jew and accept that we were still waiting for the Messiah.
One day he watched the Passion of the Christ and when he was watching Jesus’ crucifixion, he felt as though his Messiah was sacrificing his life for his sins. From then on it took little convincing before Aviad Cohen took on a new identity – that of a Messianic Jew. He maintained practicing several traditional rituals which he grew up with, all the while accepting Jesus as the Messiah and the notion of the Holy Trinity.
Throughout the video, this young man looked “normal” and he didn’t even sound nutty. I began to wonder whether his combining of Jewish and Christian beliefs is that different from Chabad Jews who as far as I know believe their leader, Rabbi Shneerson will become the Jewish Messiah in another life. Last year during the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba’Omer, I visited Mount Meron in northern Israel. I wondered the streets as I watched these ultra-religious Jews essentially praise Shneerson as they danced near a photo of him about the size of Ballentine Hall. I still recall comparing all I was witnessing at that moment to the ways in which devout Christians praise Jesus. Now I wonder whether Messianic Jews’ practice of assigning the role of the messiah to Jesus is entirely different from those Jews who too believe R’ Shneerson will become their messiah.
Even if Cohen and Shneerson followers differ in their concrete belief systems, they share two basic commonalities. First, they both consider themselves Jews. Second, they both believe that the Messiah will bring redemption to the Jewish people.
Clearly the preceding thought is a bit far-fetched, but I believe I am on to something. I am very much anticipating tomorrow’s discussion in class. I am fairly confident that my fellow classmates will come into the lesson with a similar knowledge base as my own, but I wonder if they came away from the assigned text with similar perceptions.