For me this is the key of today's devotional.
Adding more to the religion is what the Jews had been doing for centuries. God's New Covenant was a new start of allowing us to reconcile the separation between man and God.
well, to be fair, the “adding on” was done by the Pharisaical sect of 2nd Temple Judaism.
The Pharisees held to the verbal law as well as the Mosaic Law.
The Sadduccees held only to the written law, but they became the party of the elite, while the pharisees were more “to earth”.
With the destruction of the 2nd Temple (as prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24 and as seen by John in the book of Revelations where he sees the harlot-city of Jerusalem-of-69AD being burnt and devoured by the beast (the Roman Empire)) there were only 2 sects of 2nd temple Judaism left:
1. the Pharisees - who under Rabbi Ben Zakkai theorised that there was no need for the 2nd temple sacrifices any more and that Rabbis and synagogues — this led to modern day Judaism
2. the Jesus followers - who became todays orthodoxy - assyrian, coptic, catholic, eastern orthodox etc.
Note that Samaritans are still there - probably hold outs from 1st temple judaism, and Karaites are guessed as descendents of Sadduccees