"The consequences of the catastrophe are no mystery, either. In burning the Temple, the Roman legions abruptly ended the 1,000-year career of Judaism as a territorially bound sacrificial cult and launched it on its 2,000-year journey as an ethical code. It was a turning point in the career of the Jews, too, transforming them from a struggling nation into a powerless, scattered Diaspora." -- from "Lessons of Tisha B'Av", The Jewish Daily Forward, 2010-07-14