Can you tell me when the Jews stopped their animal sacrifices, and why? Was it because their city of Jerusalem and temple were destroyed?
The Romans prohibited Jews from even entering the city of Jerusalem after the city’s destruction in A.D. 70. The Jewish revolt of A.D. 132-135 failed and Jews was unable to wrest the site of Jerusalem from the Romans. The Romans rebuilt and fortified the former capital of Judaism, naming it Colonia Aelia Capitolina, which they considered a Roman colony. A heathen temple dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus was built atop Mt. Moriah where the Jewish Temple had stood (New Unger’s). Along with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, “…the high priesthood and the SANHEDRIN were abolished” (Nelson’s).
However, the Jews suspended their sacrifices on the 84th day of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the Temple was destroyed on the 105th day of the siege (International Standard). Another source reads, “On the 28th of June the daily ‘sacrifice (Dan 9:27) ceased’ from want of an officiating priest… On September 11th at last the Romans gained the upper city…” (Fausset’s). Centuries later, the Jews were permitted to make an annual visit to the western wall of the Temple mount where they prayed and mourned at the time of the former evening sacrifice. “Jews were forbidden to enter the city on pain of death. In the fourth century they got leave to enter it in order to wail on the anniversary of its capture; their place of wailing being then as now by the W. wall of the temple, where the Jews every Friday at three o’clock, the time of the evening sacrifice, wail over their desecrated temple” (Fausset’s). However, “[s]ince the destruction of their Temple and their dispersion the sacrifices have been discontinued, but in all other respects the Mosaic dispensation is observed intact among the Orthodox Jews” (McClintock and Strong emphasis added).
