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
There are two sorts of inner convictions of the soul, this thing we call faith.
Unbound by the confines of space and time, your soul sees a reality your mind cannot fathom. From that vision seeps down a conviction that G-d is with you, that He is good, and that there is really nothing else but Him.
Not because you understand. But because your soul sees that this is so. And she sees with a clarity and certainty the flesh eye could never attain.
Nevertheless, a higher vision means there are two and not one: There is you and there is the vision you perceive. And if there are two, two can be separated.
So that, when darkness and confusion swells and storms, threatening to rip you away from your G-d, a higher vision is not enough.
That is when you need to reach to the very core of your soul. Not to that place in the soul that sees G-d, but to the essence of the soul that is truly a part of G-d.
To say, "This is my G‑d. I am His, He is mine, and we are one."
"And so, nothing can stand between us."