אבות ב, ד - מה זה רצונו של ה'?

(4) He used to say: do His will as though it were your will, so that He will do your will as though it were His. Set aside your will in the face of His will, so that he may set aside the will of others for the sake of your will.

(1) He was accustomed to say: Make His [God's] will like your will: [Just] as when a person does his own will with want and desire, so should he do the will of the Holy One, blessed be He. And [he] should not separate between the will of the blessed Holy One, blessed be He, and his [own] will, but rather make both of them [into] one thing. He means to say that he should not will anything that is not the will in front of God. And they said in the Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan (Midrash Mishlei 9), "And so did David say (I Chronicles 29:14), 'but all is from You, and it is from Your Hand that we have given to You.'" And he gave a good counsel to people to overcome their nature [and] do the desire and will of God, may He be blessed - also from their money and from the acquisitions: because God gave everything and [what they have] is [only] a deposit in their hands. And when [one] brings this up into his heart, at the very least he will do the will of the owners - which is God - with the deposit. And with this, he will not worry when he gives charity and he will do the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, willingly and with a good heart.

§ Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended on High, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and tying crowns on the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, who is preventing You from giving the Torah without these additions? God said to him: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name; he is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhot. It is for his sake that the crowns must be added to the letters of the Torah. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, show him to me. God said to him: Return behind you. Moses went and sat at the end of the eighth row in Rabbi Akiva’s study hall and did not understand what they were saying. Moses’ strength waned, as he thought his Torah knowledge was deficient. When Rabbi Akiva arrived at the discussion of one matter, his students said to him: My teacher, from where do you derive this? Rabbi Akiva said to them: It is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai. When Moses heard this, his mind was put at ease, as this too was part of the Torah that he was to receive. Moses returned and came before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and said before Him: Master of the Universe, You have a man as great as this and yet You still choose to give the Torah through me. Why? God said to him: Be silent; this intention arose before Me. Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, You have shown me Rabbi Akiva’s Torah, now show me his reward. God said to him: Return to where you were. Moses went back and saw that they were weighing Rabbi Akiva’s flesh in a butcher shop [bemakkulin], as Rabbi Akiva was tortured to death by the Romans. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, this is Torah and this is its reward? God said to him: Be silent; this intention arose before Me.