R. Daniel,
I often download podcasts from Chabad.org to listen to. Something that confuses me a little bit about Judaism is the amount of time and detail it lends itself to a subject. The one I listened to recently concerned saying the blessing after eating. Things that were discussed were when to say the blessing, with what kind of breads/grains the bread had to consist of, how much bread you had to eat to qualify as being full, what happens if you forget to say the blessing and remember later. Do you go back to where you ate and say the blessing there, do you say it where you are? What about if you purposely didn't say the blessing because you wanted to do it later..does that qualify….so forth, etc.
One of the things, I admit, hearing in church was that Jews work for their salvation. It's probably because of the above. I know this isn't true simply because you don't view a need for the kind of salvation Christians believe in. Would you be willing to put into perspective, for me who is trying to understand, why it simply isn't enough to say, "Say a blessing after you eat" and leave it at that? Leave the rest of the details to each individual? Why do you have to introduce so many details that it becomes confusing and difficult to remember them all?
