[Avodah] The Main Idea of Judaism

[Doron Beckerman]

I'm still not 100% sure I understand what you are getting at, since what
Hashem wants from people, broadly, is to transform their will to His Will.
He has many things He wants us to accomplish, and the goal is for us to
want to accomplish them all.

If you want something more specific, I would go with Rav Wolbe's concept of
Sulamos - ladders of growth, and whatever stands at the pinnacle of the
ladder constitutes what Hashem wants of you.

The thing is, though, that as you say, there are many valid answers to
that question. Many different sources have different ladders. And the
reason is because of what the GRA says on Mishlei 16:1-4. Everyone has
their own path they need to take in life. It used to be that the Neviim
would tell you what it was, then it was Ruach Hakodesh, and now it is only
through completely unbiased self-awareness. Which is, for purpose of our
discussion, non-existent today.

And, thus, the GRA there circles back to this: "Nowadays we should not go
with grand and phenomenal ideas (Gedolos Veniflaos). We must only
ascertain  that our actions should be unto Hashem, meaning, in accordance
with His Will... and via fulfillment of those actions themselves, i.e.
fulfilling Mitzvos Asei and avoiding Lo Saaseis, *they* will make your
thoughts in consonance (with the truth), for  "Kol Po'al Hashem
Lema'anehu," meaning, the primary Will of Hashem is the Torah and the
Mitzvos."

In other words, in theory, the place to look for the answer to that
question is *within oneself.* [Which, by the way, is where one needs to
look to properly understand Aggadeta.] But since we cannot really be sure
that we are free of biases, we must resort to Torah and Mitzvos driven by
an unbridled will to do nothing but the Will of Hashem, and that will bring
about, to the extent possible, a person reaching the pinnacle of his own
ladder.
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