Why did the Jewish religion change customs after Jesus showed up?

*The centrality of the animal sacrifices ceased, not with the second destruction of the Temple by the Romans, but rather with the first destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians. Please remember that the vast majority of Jews never returned to the Promised Land under Cyrus of Persia. They remained in Babylonia. By the time Jesus was born, eighty percent of the world's Jewish community lived outside of the Promised Land, and could not have cared less about the cessation of the animal sacrifices. When the Temple was reestablished, the Jews of Babylonia made an annual financial gift for the maintenance of the Temple, and the land, but never worried that God was not going to forgive them their sins without a blood sacrifice, just as Diaspora Jews do today. And the reason why they had no such fear, was that the Bible makes it explicitly clear that no blood sacrifice is necessary for the forgiveness of sins, or that the exclusive means for the God-man relationship was through the animal sacrifices.***

Some Christians try to tell Jews that the Second Temple was destroyed because we "rejected" Jesus. I have seen that given as justification for every exile, inquisition, pogrom and even the Holocaust. They will also claim that he is the reason the sacrifices ended and claim he is a "one time" sacrifice for all.

All those claims reveal ignorance of history! The sacrifices continued unabated for many decades before the Temple’s destruction. It isn’t logical to assume that it’s destruction would have been brought about as Divine punishment for refusing to submit to idolatry being imposed into Jewish practice.

However…Jesus and his worshippers might indeed have something to do with the Destruction of the Second Temple if we consider how history repeats itself. Here is a bit of ancient history through a Jewish perspective, along with passages from the Tanakh to show why that they may wish to reconsider the opinion that the destruction of the Second Temple happened as punishment from God because Jews did not abandon worship of God to worship Jesus.

Tammuz was a very ancient nature deity worshiped in Babylonia. He personified the creative powers of spring. The fertility goddess Ishtar was so grief-stricken at his death that she contrived to enter the underworld to get him back and resurrected him. According to another legend, she killed him and later restored him to life. The Sumerian name of Tammuz was Dumuzi. In the Bible, the women of Jerusalem (Ezekiel. 8.14) mourn his disappearance on the very steps of the Temple. Sunrise services in honor of Tammuz and praying for his resurrection is an ancient heathen custom. It is actually described and condemned harshly in the book of Ezekiel.

Hmm, Man/god, born of virgin dies and Ishtar resurrects him in the Spring. Ishtar/Easter? Annual spring resurrection celebrated with sunrise services...striking, isn't it?

12. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each one in his paved chambers? For they say, 'The Lord does not see us; the Lord has left the earth.' "

13. And He said to me, "You will yet see again greater abominations that they are doing."

14. And He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the house of the Lord that is to the north, and behold there the women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz.

15. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? You will yet see again greater abominations than these."

16. And He brought me to the inner court of the house of the Lord, and behold, at the entrance of the Temple of the Lord between the porch and the altar, about twenty- five men, their backs to the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were prostrating themselves eastward to the sun.

17. And He said to me, "Have you seen, son of man? Was it [too] trivial to the house of Judah to prevent them from performing the abominations that they have done here? For they have [already] filled the land with violence, and repeatedly provoked Me, and behold they send disgrace into their nose.

18. I too, shall act with fury; My eyes will not spare, neither will I have pity, and they will call into My ears with a loud voice, but I shall not listen to them."

This was a warning prior to the destruction of the FIRST Temple.

The Second Temple was destroyed just after another man/god began being worshipped in Jerusalem.

Coincidence?

Rather than the Davidic Mosiach ( an actual anointed ruler) restoring all exiles to Israel and whose humble rule ushers in a world of universal brotherhood, peace and worship of God for all humanity centered in Jerusalem at the Temple, the beginnings of the Christian religion saw the exile of Jews who held steadfast to the eternal covenant and the destruction of the Second Temple. Rome did not exile the Christians when they destroyed the Temple.

Jesus had zero to do with any changes within Judaism.

The end of ceremonies of sacrifice was 100% because of the Romans. Romans destroyed the Temple long after Jesus was dead and did so completely unrelated to Jesus.

The ceremony was only done if there was a Temple. It was not necessary for G-d's forgiveness anyway, so it has not been done since the Temple was destroyed and it is not that big a deal.

Forgiveness comes from substance, not ceremonies. Things like contrition, making amends, caring for others etc.

Sacrifice was merely a tool to help people consider their unknown sins and repent, it was not repentance itself. So no matter how "perfect" the sacrifice, it would not do anything.

We did not change our customs.

Jews do not sacrifice today because we are only supposed to sacrifice at the Temple.

When we were in Babylon after the destruction of the first Temple and before the building of the second, we did not sacrifice either.

As was the case when the second Temple was built,

when the third one is built then the priests will sacrifice again.

And - if you look in your book of Acts, even Christians sacrificed at the Temple - well after Jesus died.

But the Chrsitians seem to have changed the Christian belief system at some point after 70 CE (the destruction of the Temple) to pretend that the end of sacrifices was because of Jesus.

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Offering sacrifices that are not allowed by the Torah is called a "strange fire" and it can not bring redemption -- only death and destruction (go on and look up "strange fire" in the "Old Testament")

There is not one sacrifice described in the Torah which matches the death of Jesus.

And any sacrifice of human beings is "an abomination" (see Jeremiah)

Jesus was a Jewish man (one of thousands) sacrificed to the rapatiousness of Roman Empirialism --

To the degree you would call his death a sacrifice to a Deity -- it is the very essence of an Idolatrous slaughter of humanity!!!

i'm not jewish, so i don't have to be polite:

the jewish religion had absolutely no reaction to jeeses. in fact, no one living at the time had any reaction to him. he's a myth. he's a syncretization of greek salvation mysteries with jewish mythology.

the jewish religion also made no changes to customs. sacrifice at the temple was only one part of the religion. when hadrian destroyed jerusalem and the temple, and expelled the jews from judea, there was no longer a place to hold sacrifices, so they stopped. other than that, and a few minor accommodations to deal with the diaspora, judaism is exactly the same religion it always was.

no sin? really? if i'd overturned the money lenders' tables, it would've been a sin. if jesus was supposedly a man, how is he above the law? christianity is so full of holes it doesn't hold water.

The temple was destroyed by the romans, as others have said, and sacrifices could not be done anymore.

For whatever it's worth, I've seen that some Jews are taking up doing sacrifices again during the holidays.

answer: as another pointed out - Jesus had NOTHING to do with the cessation of sacrifices.

The Temple was destroyed. No Temple, no sacrifice. Same thing as between the 1st and 2nd Temple.

Jesus wasn't qualified to be a sacrifice (he wasn't unblemished) and Gd abhors a human/deity sacrifice. Equating Jesus with an animal sacrifice is insulting, actually.

Blood is NOT a requirement for the atonement of sin.

Doug needs to study his Bible. Once G-d gave the instructions for the Temple that is the ONLY place sacrifices were permitted. Perhaps a refresher course on his "OT" would help.

The Jewish religion changed because the Romans turned the Temple into rubble in 70 AD.

The Temple was destroyed, it had nothing to do with jesus

the temple was destroyed and they couldn't do sacrifices any more.

It is very telling that they abandoned the Law right after Jesus pointed out their sin.

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RE The Jewish religion changed because the Romans turned the Temple into rubble in 70 AD.

That makes no difference. They could have sacrificed animals in a tent the way that Moses did before a stone temple existed. Instead they choose to stop the sacrifices in direct disobedience to what Moses said. In doing so they admit that the new Prophet had come and the Law had passed away.

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RE Jews do not sacrifice today because we are only supposed to sacrifice at the Temple.

Moses certainly had no stone temple. He had a tent. Do you mean to tell me that all the Jews together in the world are unable to set up a tent? It's not that hard, man.