“Replacing the Temple system with the tradition of the elders resulted in what might be called the triumph of Pharisaism, and the Talmud is the monument to that triumph. Prior to the judgment on Jerusalem, they already had a few centuries of a wrong-footed head start; the traditions that Jesus so violently rejected were the traditions of the first half of the Talmudic stream. Indeed, the Talmudic traditions of the elders were the reason why Jerusalem was judged so severely.”
American Milk and Honey, pp. 49-50