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
Yom Kippur is described in many ways. One very poignant description is that it is “once in a year.”
You see, the human soul is also described in many ways, with five different names, each describing a deeper level of her being. The fifth, deepest level is called yechidah, which means “one and unique.” Yechidah is the soul as she is fused and one with her Creator, so that the two are an inseparable whole.
Yom Kippur is the day that the essential bond of yechidah shines within the time and space in our world.
Meaning that once in a year, the One Above unites with the essential oneness of the soul here below within each one of us.
All else falls away.