ByMOSHE TARAGINSEPTEMBER 11, 2026 10:15Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment. The fate of individuals is weighed, and the course of nations and empires is determined. We stand before God, examining our conduct, appealing for mercy, and praying to be inscribed in the Book of Life.Yet Rosh Hashanah carries a wider significance. It marks the anniversary of Creation, when God brought the world into existence. By judging humanity, He reasserts His sovereignty over creation. We therefore turn beyond our own lives to the movement of history, asking how clearly God’s presence can be discerned in His world.History begins with Creation and moves toward redemption. At the end of that journey, God’s presence will become unmistakable, as humanity comes to recognize Him.Each Rosh Hashanah, as history advances along its difficult path toward that destination, we consider the year that has passed. Which developments have made God more visible, and which have pushed His presence further into concealment?We cannot decode providence or confidently explain why particular events occur. Yet people of faith can still ask whether the broader movement of history has made God’s presence easier or harder to discern.Jews pray at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site in the Old City of Jerusalem, September 9, 2026. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)Rescue, victory, and divine interventionPerhaps the most moving event in which we sensed divine intervention was the return of our hostages.Their abduction was among the most agonizing elements of Oct. 7, compounded by the unimaginable suffering many endured in captivity.For much of the war, the return of every hostage seemed beyond hope. We assumed Hamas would retain some as bargaining chips or human shields. Yet 168 hostages were brought home alive, and ultimately every hostage who had been murdered or died in captivity was returned for burial in Israel. Again and again, we welcomed home people whose names and faces had become seared into our consciousness, and for whom we had prayed for months or even years.Their return reminded people of faith that history is never limited by what appears possible at a particular moment.We also continue to sense His hand guiding us through history as we return to our homeland and reclaim our place within the historical arena.Over the past year, Israel achieved remarkable military successes. Iran, our most dangerous enemy, was severely weakened, while much of the “ring of fire” it had constructed around Israel through murderous proxies was dismantled or substantially degraded.The contrast with the days following Oct. 7 is striking. Israel then appeared painfully vulnerable, surrounded by enemies and threatened on multiple fronts. Three years later, the strategic landscape of the Middle East has been dramatically altered.None of this should obscure the terrible cost of the war or suggest that every danger has disappeared. Yet developments that once seemed improbable became reality, and for many of us the hand of God felt unusually close as the regional landscape was transformed.Faith resurfaces after being testedWe have also witnessed renewed visibility of faith.Israel today is very different from the country founded nearly eight decades ago. Even among Israelis who are not observant, many speak comfortably about faith, prayer, Jewish destiny, and God’s presence in our national story.This shift had been developing for years, but Oct. 7 accelerated it dramatically. Faith has been tested under harsh conditions and has repeatedly surfaced in public life among soldiers, bereaved families, hostage families, and ordinary Israelis confronting fear and uncertainty. God has become a more explicit part of the language many Israelis use to understand their lives and the history unfolding around them.These currents of faith in Israel have been mirrored by a strengthening of Jewish identity among Jews abroad. The hatred unleashed after Oct. 7 forced many Jews to reconsider identities they had previously worn lightly. Many became more conscious of their Jewishness, more attached to Israel, and more determined to display an identity they once kept private.This awakening does not always take an explicitly religious form. Yet Jewish identity is never entirely detached from God. To identify more deeply with the Jewish people is to reconnect, even indirectly, with our people whose history and destiny were shaped by a divine covenant.Every strengthening of Jewish consciousness creates another opening through which God can reenter Jewish life. Hopefully, this renewed peoplehood will mature into deeper spiritual and religious commitment.Other developments, however, have obscured God’s presence. On Rosh Hashanah, we pray that these trends will be reversed.An ancient hatredAntisemitism is raging at levels unseen since the Holocaust. More disturbing, it has moved from the fringes toward the mainstream, voiced openly by prominent politicians, activists, and influencers.Antisemitism has social, economic, political, and cultural causes, but beneath them lies a deeper spiritual impulse. We were chosen to represent God in history, and hostility toward God’s presence expresses itself toward our nation which carries His name. The resurgence of antisemitism therefore reflects a retreat of God’s presence from our world.Yet, without romanticizing antisemitism, this hatred has clarified an important truth: the State of Israel lies at the heart of the Jewish future.Much of today’s antisemitism is expressed through hostility toward Israel, extending beyond criticism of particular policies to denial of Israel’s legitimacy and right to exist. That hostility is directed at Jews regardless of whether they personally place Israel at the center of their identity.Our enemies are teaching us a truth that some Jews have not yet fully embraced: the future of Israel and the future of every Jew are inseparably bound.Fractures reappear between Jewish communitiesUnfortunately, we have not preserved the unity that emerged immediately after Oct. 7. Many old divisions have returned, while new tensions, especially surrounding haredi non-enlistment, have deepened fractures within Israeli society.When the Jewish people stands together, God’s presence is felt more powerfully among us. Our unity testifies that beneath our differences lie a deeper covenant and shared destiny.When legitimate disagreements harden into bitterness and estrangement, that divine presence recedes. Rosh Hashanah should remind us that even deep disagreement cannot erase the covenant that binds us to one another.The assault on truthFinally, we live in a world in which truth itself is becoming difficult to discern. The rise of individualism has helped fuel moral relativism, in which truth and morality are reduced to perspective and context. Even acts of obvious evil are sometimes explained away by the setting in which they occurred.God’s signature is truth, and when confidence in truth erodes, His presence becomes more obscured.At the same time, artificial intelligence is making the distinction between fact and fabrication increasingly fragile. Photographs can be manufactured, videos fabricated, and voices reproduced with remarkable accuracy. We are entering a world in which seeing and hearing may no longer provide reliable evidence of what actually occurred.It is therefore no surprise that AI-generated falsehoods have already been weaponized by those who demonize Israel and spread hatred of Jews.The Jewish people represents God in history, and our return to our homeland is part of the divine drama of Jewish destiny.Those who seek to delegitimize that return often distort not only our history but truth itself. There is something deeply troubling about this convergence. The assault on the people who carry God’s name is increasingly accompanied by an assault on truth, which is God’s own signature.The year leaves us with a divided picture: God’s presence has felt startlingly close, even as it has grown more obscured in the moral and cultural world around us. The task of 5787 is to make His presence harder to miss.■The writer is a rabbi and educator at Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush). Find his latest book, Reclaiming Redemption, Vol. II: Faith, Identity, Peoplehood, and the Storms of War, at mtaraginbooks.com.Follow us on Google