Once the cultus was concentrated at Jerusalem during the Monarchy, no sacrifices could be offered anywhere else, except animals intended only for
food: "If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there shall be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of the herd and of thy
flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatever thy soul desireth" (Deuternomy 12:21).
So all the "pilgrim feasts" were concentrated in Jerusalem. It is estimated
that about three million people were in Jerusalem for the last fatal Passover
in 70 AD, when all perished.
God had warned of this in Hosea 3. Because of Israel's spiritual harlotry with false gods and goddesses (ba`alim and 'ashtoreth), God said "For the
children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince,
and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
without teraphim" (Hosea 3:4). Once the Temple was destroyed, that was an
end to all the sacrifices of the Levitical order. In effect, once Jesus had
died on Calvary, the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world, the
Temple and all its sacrifices were redundant, and only awaited until 70 AD
to be done away with for ever (Daniel 9:24-26).
From the Babylonian captivity, synagogues were instituted for the study
of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. "Thus saith the Lord GOD: Although I have cast them far off among the nations, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come" (Ezekiel 11:16). There are innumerable "little sanctuaries" where the Word (TaNaKh) is reverently stored and read aloud.
Synagogue worship has been the rule since Babylonian times. Even Jesus
himself worshipped in the Synagogue: "as his custom was, he went into the
synagogue on the sabbath" (Luke 4:16). The Passover was a family occasion celebrated in the home. But the lamb had to be slaughtered in the Temple, then taken home or to the rooms temporarily rented, to keep the actual Feast.
Jesus and his disciples did this (Matthew 26:18). We are not sure if the
Lord's Supper was an actual Passover, or just a Qiddush of the Passover.
There is no mention of a Lamb in the accounts of the Last Supper. Since 70,
and to this very day, Jews have to keep a bloodless Passover (Seder) with
just a memorial charred shankbone of a lamb on the table to remind them.
In 1967 on the 6th day of the Six Day War, General Moshe Dayan and his
chief army chaplain (rabbi) blew the shophar, and proclaimed the Wailing
Wall (the edge of the former Temple platform) as an open-air Synagogue.
This was 2300 years since Alexander the Great polluted the sanctuary in
333 BC, fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel 8:13-14. Palmoni, the "wonderful
calculator", told Daniel that the sanctuary would be cleansed after 2300
"days", a day for a year (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6).
When Christ returns, then shall the remainder of Hosea 3 be fulfilled:
"Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God,
and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his Goodness in the latter
days" (Hosea 3:5). Jesus is the Davidic Messianic King; he is the "Goodness" of YHWH (Psalm 144:2). Israel is back in the Land, but until they recognise Jesus as their Messiah they will not dwell there in peace. There will be no peace, until the Prince of Peace reigns from Jerusalem (Isaiah 9:6-7).
"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast,
not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
