Every Rosh Hashanah, Jewish communities across the world rise together to proclaim “Avinu Malkeinu, Our Father, Our King.” We crown Hashem as King, plead with Him as children before a loving Father, and stand in awe before the Judge of all humanity.
For centuries these images have carried the Jewish people through exile, repentance and hope. Yet many modern Jews quietly wonder as they stand in shul on Rosh Hashanah: To whom are we actually speaking?
Rabbi David Aaron warns against what he calls the “Zeus Model” of G-d – the image of a powerful Being somewhere “up there,” seated on a Heavenly throne, watching, judging, rewarding and punishing. The Rambam states unequivocally that G-d has no body or physical form. Yet many of us still imagine our prayers rising toward a great invisible Person beyond the clouds.
That picture can be comforting, but it raises difficult questions. If Hashem is a loving Father, why is there suffering? If He is an all-powerful King, why does He allow evil? If He already knows what we need, why must we ask? If He knows the future, where is our free will?
Perhaps the issue is not Hashem, but the picture in our minds. Chazal explain that the Torah speaks in human language because every generation needs images that help us approach the Infinite. Perhaps our generation needs another metaphor alongside Avinu Malkeinu.
Imagine a vast simulated world sustained by an Intelligence beyond it. The beings inside experience time, choice, fear, love and growth. Their decisions genuinely matter, yet the Simulator is not another character within their universe. He exists beyond it while sustaining every moment of its existence.
This is only a metaphor. Hashem is not a programmer, nor is our world a computer game. But the analogy illuminates something we have always known: Hashem is both beyond the world and intimately present within it.
More than that, it reminds us that we are not standing outside Hashem looking toward Him. We exist within Him. He is not merely the Creator of our world; our world exists within His infinite reality.
A striking Midrash teaches that Hashem created other worlds before creating ours (Bereishit Rabbah 3:19). As a metaphor for the modern mind, we might picture those “worlds” as countless possible histories. Imagine the Simulator exploring every possible path from Creation to Redemption. Out of those innumerable possibilities, one history reaches its intended destination.
The Simulator then “renders” that history. Think of it as a complete playback of the one timeline that reaches its intended destination. Every decision along the way was genuinely ours; human free will was real and uncoerced. And yet the Simulator already knows every outcome, because He has already seen the story in its entirety. We experience history one choice at a time, moving forward in suspense; G-d knows it whole, the way we might watch a replay of a game whose result we already know. This offers one way of reconciling authentic human free will with Divine foreknowledge: our choices are real, but to G-d, this world is not unfolding – it is already complete.
This metaphor could also transform the way we think about our Rosh Hashanah davening.
Prayer is not flattery offered to a King who needs praise, nor information given to a Father who lacks knowledge. Tefillah is alignment. As we proclaim “HaMelech,” we reorient ourselves to the deepest reality. Praise reminds us what is true. Our requests clarify what we aspire to. Gratitude reshapes how we see the world.
When we whisper the Amidah, we are not projecting our voices across the universe toward a distant Heaven. We are turning inward to the One within Whom we already dwell, Who continually sustains our existence.
Avinu Malkeinu remains one of our most beautiful prayers. Sometimes we need a Father’s embrace. Sometimes we need a King’s authority. Those images will always speak to the heart. But Rosh Hashanah also invites us to deepen our understanding. Perhaps HaMelech is not a ruler seated upon a throne, but the Infinite Source of all reality, beyond everything, within everything, and in Whom we ourselves live.
Perhaps the deepest meaning of crowning Hashem as King is not placing Him above us, but awakening to the reality that we have always lived within Him. Perhaps that is what Rosh Hashanah has been asking of us all along.
Rabbi Leo Dee is an educator living in Efrat. This teaching is explained in more detail in his next book “Transforming the Soul: Building Emuna Through Tefila”, slated for publication by Koren-Maggid in early 2027.