Rectifying and unifying all desire toward Hashem

עשה רצונו כרצונך כו'.

"Make His will like your will," etc.

The Sefas Emes opens with the maamar Chazal from Pirkei Avos: make Hashem's ratzon into your own will. He will now show how this is achieved.

הוא עצה לתקן הרצון כפי מה שאדם מדבק כל רצונו וחשקו במצוה ומעשה טוב.

It is counsel to rectify the will (ratzon): according to how much a person attaches all his will and desire (chesheik) to a mitzvah and a good deed.

The teaching is practical guidance for repairing one's ratzon — by pouring all of one's wanting and yearning into mitzvos and good deeds.

מתדבק הרצון בקדושת השי"ת ועי"ז אין יכול להתפרד אח"כ אף שיש לו רצונות אחרים ג"כ.

The will becomes attached to the holiness of Hashem Yisbarach, and through this it can no longer become separated afterward, even though he also has other desires.

Once the ratzon is bonded to Hashem's kedushah, that connection holds firm and cannot be severed, even when a person still experiences competing desires.

כי הקדושה שומרת הרצון שלא יתקלקל ויוכל עי"ז להעלות כל הרצונות להשי"ת.

For the holiness guards the will so that it should not become corrupted, and through this he is able to elevate all the desires to Hashem Yisbarach.

The kedushah acts as a safeguard, protecting the ratzon from ruin, and from that secure point a person can lift all his other desires upward toward Hashem.

כי צריך אדם להאמין כי כל מה שיש רצונות אחרים בעולם הם לטובה.

For a person must believe that whatever other desires exist in the world are for the good.

Part of the avodah is emunah: trusting that even the pull of other, worldly desires ultimately serves a good purpose.

ושעי"ז יכול להיות רצון אמת לעבודת השי"ת.

And that through this a true will (ratzon emes) for the avodah of Hashem Yisbarach can come about.

Those very competing desires are the raw material from which a genuine, tested will to serve Hashem can be forged.

וכשאדם לומד ק"ו מרצונות אחרים איך לעשות רצונו ית' כראוי עי"ז מעלה כל הרצונות אשר לא טובים המה להשי"ת.

And when a person learns a kal va'chomer from other desires — how to perform His will properly — through this he elevates all the desires that are not good, [raising them] to Hashem Yisbarach.

By reasoning a fortiori from the intensity of his worldly cravings — "if I desire this so strongly, how much more should I desire to fulfill Hashem's ratzon" — a person redeems and elevates even his lower desires.

ואפשר ז"ש התאוו תאוה שהי' חסר להם התאוה.

And perhaps this is the meaning of "they lusted a lust (his'avu ta'avah)" — that they were lacking the [proper] desire.

He offers a novel reading of the sin of the "mis'onenim": the phrase "they lusted a lust" hints that their real deficiency was a lack of healthy desire.

כי היו רחוקים מתאוות גשמיות.

For they were distant from physical desires.

The midbar generation lived on a lofty, miraculous plane, far removed from ordinary physical cravings.

לכך היו חסרים תאוה טובה.

Therefore they were lacking a good desire.

Precisely because they had no earthly desires to channel and elevate, they also lacked the resulting "good desire" — the powerful, redirected yearning for avodas Hashem.

ולכן התאוו תאוה.

Therefore they "lusted a lust."

This inner emptiness drove them to manufacture a craving — to "lust a lust" — seeking the very physical desire they had been missing.

ונחשב לחטא כי השי"ת רצה שיהיו המה באופן אחר.

And it was reckoned as a sin, for Hashem Yisbarach wanted them to be in a different manner.

It became a cheit because Hashem's ratzon for that exalted generation was that they remain on their elevated level rather than reach down for physical craving.

ואנחנו ע"י אמונה צריכין לקרב כל הרצונות להשי"ת שיהי' נעשה רצון אחד להשי"ת מכל אלו הרצונות:

And we, through emunah, must bring all the desires close to Hashem Yisbarach, so that from all of these desires one will [directed] to Hashem Yisbarach should be formed.

Our avodah, by contrast, is to use emunah to draw all our many desires close to Hashem, fusing them into a single unified ratzon devoted entirely to Him.

Summary: "Make His will like your will" is counsel for rectifying the ratzon: by attaching all one's desire and yearning to mitzvos, the will bonds to Hashem's holiness, which then guards it and lets a person elevate even his lower desires through a kal va'chomer. The sin of "they lusted a lust" was that the midbar generation, being too removed from physical desire, lacked the "good desire" Hashem wanted of them. Our task is to use emunah to draw all our scattered desires close to Hashem and forge them into one unified will devoted to Him.