On Rosh Hashana, I spoke about how this past year has really pushed us as Jews into incredibly uncomfortable times, — facing a Gate of Uncertainty — where we are physically, emotionally and spiritually unsettled. And then I discussed our historical response over the past 2,000 years – choosing the Gate of Resiliency — how we always came to realize how important it was and is to be part of a community that shares the same values, where we can talk about our fears and our hopes in safety and how we find ways to rediscover the resilience and the strength that has always been our way. Our October 7 gathering on Monday evening was all that and more. I actually don’t do large crowds well, but this was special. 3,000 people gathered – Jews and so many non-Jewish friends who walk on a shared wide road beside us. We walked – led by five rabbis taking turns to share a new Torah scroll from Adas Yeshurun Herzlia Synagogue that was dedicated to those lost on October 7. And then we heard words from our elected officials – federal, provincial, and municipal – crossing all party lines that gave us comfort and hope: Messages that affirmed our vital role in our community and in this province and country; their unanimous commitment to our safety in our own neighbourhoods; to the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself; their absolute rejection of antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric and acts, and their specific references to Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups. And in the most beautiful symbolic act, our Manitoba Legislative Building was lit up in blue and white, the colours of the Israeli flag. My parents came to Canada from Eastern Europe because of their desperate hope for a new and different life – my father in1937 to escape economic and religious repression, and my mother in 1948 out of the rubble of the Holocaust. They are now gone, but if they were here, I believe that what I heard yesterday is the promise that Canada had always meant to them. But I also learned something important last night, and that is the comfort and strength that I can find when I remember that Judaism isn’t meant to be an individual experience but instead to be experienced as a peoplehood.   Am Yisrael Chai – our affirmation: “The Peoplehood of Israel Live!” Rabbi Allan