After 334 years, the 2nd Holy Temple in Jerusalem (see "Today in Jewish History" for Adar 3) was in disrepair. In the year 19 BCE, King Herod I floated the idea of rebuilding and renovating the Temple. Though many Jews were wary of Herod’s motives, the renovation was completed eight years later. The new structure was magnificent, causing the Talmud to state: "He who has not seen Herod's edifice has not seen a magnificent edifice!"
Link: Herod the Great
On the afternoon of 12 Adar II 5752 (March 17, 1992), a pickup truck loaded with explosives smashed into the front of the Israeli Embassy and detonated. The embassy, a church, and a school were destroyed. The blast killed 29 and wounded 242.
The word Purim is from the Persian word pur, a means of gambling.
Because Haman believed that all of life is a gamble.
G‑d threw a roll of dice, he said, and the world was made.
Another roll—good was chosen to be good and bad to be evil.
So Haman threw his own dice and gambled that this time evil would win and good would be defeated. And when he saw the results, he was convinced that he had won the game.
Haman was right about one thing: G‑d is beyond this world. Beyond all things.
He has no need for a world, or for anything at all to exist. He can choose as He wills.
He was wrong about another: G‑d doesn't decide by a roll of dice.
He chooses with His very self, the essence of His being.
So that within this choice to have a world, His very essence is invested.
And within those things He chose as good, He is found.
And within those things He chose as evil, He is hidden.
Even within the throw of dice, even when thrown by the most sinister villain, He is there.
And the dice are loaded.