At the return from Babylonian Exile in about 500 BCE, the leaders of the Jewish People, Ezra and Nehemiah, with the assistance of a body of Torah scholars, including the last of the Prophets, carefully reconstructed Jewish life. This body is known as the Kenesset Hagedolah; the Great Assembly. They not only chose which books belonged in the Tanakh and which did not, but also composed prayers, blessings, and the correct forms for many ceremonies, such as Kiddush and Havdalah. Ezra was a Priest and Scribe. He essentially saved the beleaguered returnees from physical and spiritual destruction. He is sometimes called by historians "the Second Moses".
Unfortunately, we have little reliable information concerning the period between about 400 BCE until about 150 BCE. We have no books; only traditions, legends, and some clues from secondary sources. When light again is shed on Jewish history in the second century BCE, we find several different factions. One is the Pharisees. These were the rabbis (although the term didn't come in to existence for another hundred years) and their disciples. These were the guardians of both the Written and Oral Torah. The vast majority of the common people loved them and followed them. All traditional Judaism is based on their teachings and enactments. One twentieth century historian aptly referred to Jews as "Heirs to the Pharisees".
Another group arose, however. They were called the Sadducees. They accepted the Written Torah, but not the Oral. They denied doctrines that had always been part of Judaism, but were obscure in the Written Torah, especially regarding the Afterlife. They rejected the immortality of the soul, as well as the Resurrection of the Dead. Their almost total focus was the Temple. They believed that the sacrifices and other Temple rituals would bring wealth and happiness in this world. From all accounts, they were not particularly careful about Jewish observances in areas outside of the Temple rules. Their constituency was the upper class, as well as large parts of the Priesthood. We have records of violent reactions on the part of the people when Sadducee Priests would attempt to alter Temple rituals in accordance with their own concepts.
Another group was the Essenes. We know little about them, except that they felt that everyone else was corrupt. They rejected Jerusalem and the Temple. They lived in small desert communes. They had their own set of rituals, in some ways like our own, in some ways different. They expected an imminent war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness. They considered the revolt against Rome in the first and second centuries of the Common Era to be that war. Although there is as yet no proof, it is widely accepted that the group that left us the Dead Sea Scrolls was none other than the Essenes. "New Age" groups have produced many fanciful writings purported to be Essene, but composed in the last twenty years. Some connect them with early Christianity, but there is no solid evidence for this.
With the destruction of Jerusalem in about the year 70 CE (Jewish tradition asserts 68 CE), the Sadducee lost their base. With no Temple, no functioning priesthood, there was no Judaism. The movement seems to have just vanished, although there is evidence that small pockets existed for several more centuries. The Essenes disappear from history some time after the Bar Kochba revolt in the second century. Only the Pharisees survived. Why? Immediately after the Destruction, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai reconstructed the Sanhedrin, now more a spiritual focal point than a judicial one, in the sleepy backwater town of Yavneh. Although moving several times in order to avoid Roman scrutiny, it survived for another three centuries, well into Talmudic times. Phariseeism had succeeded in making Judaism "portable". Although Jerusalem was, and always will be, the center of our world, Torah is beyond geography. Wherever a Jew may wander, the Torah...and G-d. are always with him. Those ancient movements that challenged the Oral Torah and our Mesorah, simply lay down and died.
There were, however, later challenges. That will be the topic of my next post.