In this article, award winning author Rabbi David Jaffe asks what is perhaps the most important question of all: “How do we find our purpose in this world?”

The question, “What is my purpose” sounds remarkably modern, with its emphasis on the individual’s search for meaning. In pre-modern times identity and purpose were forged in relation to the group and its needs. However, going back at least 2000 years our rabbis found ultimate meaning in the individual as well as in the community. The clearest statement of individual value is in Mishna Sandhedrin (4:5), “”It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam], to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.”If each, individual life is so important, than each individual life must have a unique purpose. Identifying and living that purpose is our great life task. How do we know our purpose? A place to start is with our ratzon – our deep desire.

Rabbi Anthony wrote about the importance of desire in living an ethical life in his post from May 18, 2017. Ethical behavior requires a desire to be good. It is not enough to know what it means to be good or how to be good. You have to want to be good. Wanting and desire are crucial aspects of our spiritual and moral lives. Ratzon, will, has the same Hebrew root as the word “run/ratz” – we run after that which we desire. We need to identify what it is we really want. I’m not talking about what you want for dinner or the latest show you want to watch. What do you want for your life, for your relationships and for the world? Pursuing these desires gives life meaning and joy.

Indeed, Rabbi Yisrael Salanter identified Ratzon as the key to his highest level of growth, which he called Tikkun (Ohr Yisrael, Letter 30). Rav Yisrael’s theory of change has three levels: Hergesh/Sensitivity involves becoming highly aware of one’s inner life, including triggers, motivations and positive and negative character traits. Kibbush/Conquering involves building the muscle to say no to the call of lower desires and unhealthy habits. Tikkun is the most refined level of growth. According to Rav Yisrael it involves building the ratzon/desire to do good so that one feels pulled, almost beyond the level of conscious thought, to do the right thing in any situation. Again, ratzon, or a feeling of desire is key. Just as we need ratzon to cultivate ethical behavior, we need ratzon to guide us towards our purpose in life.

However there is a danger in relying solely on what you want as a guide to your unique purpose in life. As isolated individuals we can easily fool ourselves and head down potentially destructive paths. We need to function in relationship to others and the wider world. This is where God’s Ratzon comes in. “Rabban Gamliel said: Make God’s ratzon as your ratzon, so that God will make your ratzon as God’s ratzon.(Pirkei Avot 2:4). This admittedly difficult to decipher statement asks us to seek God’s ratzon. What is God’s desire for us? I believe our purpose is best found by both identifying our own deep desires and doing our best to understand God’s desire for us. In my book, Changing the World from the Inside Out: A Jewish Approach to Personal and Social Change, I explore how we might come to understand God’s Ratzon for us:

I propose three ways to identify God’s will. One is classic Jewish religious literature and law. The three-thousand-year-old oral tradition is an ongoing effort to discern the divine will in each generation. This literature includes the Talmud and legal codes. So, if your ratzon is telling you to steal something, it is probably off base. We also can identify God’s will by getting familiar with our intuition. This is the still, small voice of our soul that whispers more than shouts. We need to cultivate deep listening to hear it. The third way comes from awareness of our life situation and personal gifts. What skills do we have, and what is the need of our particular time and place that we are well positioned to meet? This is what Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik called our Shlichut,” or mission in life.

Taken together, these three are like data points that give us some sense of what God wants at any particular time. I say, “some sense” because it is impossible for our limited consciousness to know God’s will with any certainty. These points also balance each other. Jewish law on its own can crush the individual spirit, while pure intuition can easily be mistaken or narcissistic. The needs of this particular era keep us grounded in the here and now rather than drifting off into the past or into our own little internal worlds. Seeking and aligning ourselves with God’s will is an important corrective to getting lost in our own minds. Of course people still fool themselves into thinking God wants all the infidels killed. This three-point method of discernment increases the chances that our sense of the divine will will honor both tradition and the uniqueness of each individual, keeping our desire on track to improve the world. (P. 24-5)

Calibrating our deep, internal desire with what we think God wants from us can give us a good sense of our ultimate purpose as unique individuals. Of course, this purpose can change with time and we need to keep looking both inside and outside. We need courage and honesty to take such a close look at our lives. But it is worth it because one of life’s greatest joys comes from working hard to overcome obstacles on the way to living our purpose.