My apologies Zardoz. I was speaking in generalities. Specifically, I was speaking to the Messianics (or sinitacists, which is a dumb way of saying Messianic) that we were discussing with. I know Messianic Jews that hold Oral Torah with the best of them. But alot of them don't. Since Messianic Judaism has no specific code or creed, I guess generalities can't really be used. Again, apologies.
Apology accepted, and in turn apologies if I got a lil defensive. There are indeed two distinct versions of Messianics; Hebrew Christians and Messianic Jews, you are correct in your observation.
I will now use abbreviations and try to not get too far off topic, but this is important.
Unfortunately some H.C. use the term M.J. to identify themselves which does cause no end to confusion.
As a M.J. I have known quite a few H.C. and from what I know from these individuals, they
Ethnically identify themselves as Jews but their
Religious identification is Christianity. They may observe various Jewish traditions and holidays, but they do not attach much religious meaning to them, it's an ethnic thing, see? M.J. on the other hand consider themselves Jewish and seek to understand the Jewish Yeshua. Any doctrine about him which is in direct opposition to Torah, is obviously wrong and discarded. For example, very few M.J. accept the Trinitarian doctrine or Incarnationist doctrine as these are directly opposed to Judaism's monotheism. When we say the Shema, we true M.J. mean the same thing as every other Jew, without any *. We obviously accept the Oral Torah as binding.
Of course, there are shades of gray between these two groups, as you note there is no code or creed and in smaller communities M.J. and H.C. do tend to socialize together, adding to confusion. There is no easy answer, each M.J. should be considered an individual. Defeats the whole point of an identity I know, but that's the situation.
Shalom
