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Ge 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

One is not dependent on the other. It wouldn't make any sense. Again, the Israelites have to remain in slavery because the Amorites haven't sinned enough?

This is pretty much how I see it:
(no offense to Fenris)

None taken. All will be revealed in time.

Davy left because I told him he couldn't abuse Fenris.

Only the regulars are allowed to abuse me.

Because I know you guys love me!

That's a really nice post Fenris. For the Christian, the context of some of the situations you mentioned could be discussed, but I'd rather leave it as a contrasting viewpoint since you did such a good job.

Thank you! These are the discussions that I'm here for.

Pharisees for example were described in the New Testament as legalistic to a point of absurdity

I feel that this is a mischaracterization.

It sounds a little like you are saying it is a "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling" kind of thing within norms.

Judaism is not about salvation. It's about upholding a covenant with God. He gave us responsibilities and we try to do them to the best of our abilities. 

You make a good point regarding the comparison between Jewish religion and Catholicism.

Not a comparison so much as "if you need rules, why get rid of the old rules and introduce new rules?"
And also "If faith alone saves, why does the church have laws for the adherents to follow?"

I think it's a big weakness of Catholicism.

I kind of made a soft point about this in our discussion above but didn't want to press the point. The Jews observe Yom Kippur annually and thus have to continually atone.

Actually, we don't have to wait for Yom Kippur to atone. We ask God for forgiveness for our sins every time that we pray. Because we all fall short, so we try our best, and ask for forgiveness and mercy when we fail.

Catholicism kind of fell (from a Protestant's view) into Paul's trap of tradition and a religion with rules (another Protestant objection) takes hold. This is another great point of Protestantism as they hold that the Bible (Scripture) is the sole and final authority for all matters of faith and conduct of the believer whereas tradition of the church is additive to the Scripture in Catholicism. Interestingly, Jewish religion probably holds close to Scripture as the final authority as well. Or does it?

Well, it's complicated. Because Judaism is a religion of rules (as mentioned) and so a religion of deeds. Faith, while important, is not central. Of course why would someone follow all the rules if they didn't believe? Nonetheless. Now, if you read the bible's rules, some are very clear ("don't steal" for example) and some less so. Even something as simple as keeping the Sabbath. It's the seventh day, but when does the Sabbath start? At midnight? In the morning? The bible says not to work, but what exactly defines "work"? And so the Talmud contained all these rules carried down orally from Sinai, so we believe. It's a compendium of information and logical tools to explain what the law is and how it is to be followed. The value is that Judaism is a very democratic religion in that this information is available to everyone and anyone can study the laws and learn for themselves. In fact, the Talmud states that in some ways, the sage is greater than the prophet, because the prophet can only tell you of communication from God, which a person can accept or reject; but a sage can teach you something and logically explain why it's true and then you can acquire that knowledge for yourself.

I kind of rambled there a bit but I hope you caan get the gist of it.

This all gets to the faith vs works "argument" between Protestantism and Catholicism. Works play an important role in maintaining one's good standing with the Catholic church wherein one is "saved". In Protestantism, one's salvation is through faith and managed primarily with God. This is just a sliver of the real issues at hand, but most are familiar with this.

And this seems to me to be the real weakness of Catholicism. We can all agree that Judaism is a "works based" (although I prefer the term "rules based" ) religion.

If Christianity is a truly break from Judaism, why then did the Catholic church introduce new rules?  Why not just leave the old rules in place then?