For me, it's obvious that October 7th was part of His Divine plan. Consider everything that has unfolded since, and the larger process set in motion that day: A. The attack presented the world with a horrifying moral test. After witnessing a brutal, livestreamed massacre of Jews, would the nations stand with the Jewish people as they fought for survival, or would they find excuses for the murderers, send them aid, lend them moral legitimacy, and ultimately strengthen the forces seeking to destroy us? Much of the world failed that test, and look as the consequences continue to unfold. Israel’s enemies throughout the region have since been dramatically weakened, while the crisis has exposed profound weakness and vulnerability across much of the Western world, which the radical red-green alliance continues to exploit. It is our enemies who, in the aftermath of October 7th, have found themselves stripped of protection. B. October 7 presented the Jewish people with a test of our own... A warrior in Be’eri was suddenly our brother, a hostage we had never met became our sister. Their parents became our parents and their children became our children. Jews across the world gave money, flew across oceans, volunteered, enlisted, prayed, cooked, drove, donated, visited the wounded and refused to forget the captives. We showed ourselves and the world that when one Jew suffers, millions feel their pain!! One lesson of October 7 is that internal division can look like weakness from the outside, and had we been more united on October 6, perhaps Sinwar may have been far less confident to strike Israel. C. Look at how much has changed since October 7. Iran’s nuclear program has been obliterated (at least for now). Its leadership and regional proxies have been dramatically weakened. Gulf countries increasingly find themselves siding with Israel. The shekel has shown remarkable strength. Assad’s regime is gone. In the United States, the Dems have since lost control of the House Senate and White House. Leftism around the world has lost credibility, the UN has been rendered irrelevant, academia has become a joke, and the Two-State solution remains dead and buried. And most remarkable, it's made the Jewish people more united, more religious and Jews are openly having conversations about rebuilding the Third Beis HaMikdash. So when you ask “Why didn’t Hashem protect the Jews on October 7?” my answer is: Maybe the question isn’t why Hashem failed to protect us. Maybe the question is whether we recognize the forms His protection takes over the long term, not only in a single terrible moment. Becuase Divine protection does not always mean preventing tragedy. Sometimes history is allowed to unfold in ways whose purpose only becomes visible much later. October 7th brought out the best in us while bringing our enemies to their knees. Moving forward our task is to make sure that the unity, responsibility and love for one another that emerged from October 7 does not require another October 7 to reawaken us in the future.