The joyous dedication of the second Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) on the site of the 1st Temple in Jerusalem, was celebrated on the 3rd of Adar of the year 3412 from creation (349 BCE), after four years of work.
The First Temple, built by King Solomon in 833 BCE, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 423 BCE. At that time, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied: "Thus says the L-rd: After seventy years for Babylon will I visit you... and return you to this place." In 371 the Persian emperor Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the Temple, but the construction was halted the next year when the Samarians persuaded Cyrus to withdraw permission. Achashverosh II (of Purim fame) upheld the moratorium. Only in 353 -- exactly 70 years after the destruction -- did the building of the Temple resume under Darius II.
Link: The Holy Temple
R. Mordechai Jaffe served as the rabbi of numerous communities in Poland and Lithuania. Among his more well-known works are Levush Malchut,a halachic code following the order of R. Jacob ben Asher’s Arbaah Turim, and Levush HaOrah,a super-commentary to R. Shlomo Yitzchaki’s Torah commentary. R. Mordechai served as the head of the “Council of Four Lands,” the government-sanctioned Jewish organization entrusted with dealing with Jewish communal affairs. In addition to Talmud and Jewish law, R. Mordechai was also well-versed in both Kabbalah and astronomy.
He passed away on 3 Adar II.
Link: Rabbi Mordechai Jaffe
The sages describe the Torah as the wisdom by which the world was made. But that does not capture its essence. It is far beyond that. Torah is the wisdom by which the world is healed.
To heal a world, you must stand entirely beyond it. You must enter into the very essence of its Creator and sense what He wanted from this world to begin with. In the story of creation, you will find whispers of an unfathomable Author. In its healing, you will discover the Author Himself.
That is why Torah was initially given to survivors, to people who had suffered lives marked by trauma, yanked out of the darkest pits of human existence at the last possible moment. To people who had to be told not to steal, not to murder, not to covet that which belongs to someone else.
Because it is when Torah reaches you at your lowest point and pulls you out of there that you see its very essence and deepest power.
And it is when you have been to the rock bottom of human experience and back that you have the power to grasp the Torah at its essential core. To sense the Author within the command.