„Great and sublime is the happiness of repentance. The burning fire of…”
„Great and sublime is the happiness of repentance. The burning fire of the sorrow of sin itself refines the will, purifies the character of the person in a supreme and radiant purity, until the great wealth in the treasury of the life of repentance gradually unfolds before him. The person gradually rises and is elevated...”
Repentance is a deep process in which precisely the understanding of where we are weak makes us stronger. The bitterness of repentance and the deep understanding of the places where we fell, where we erred, where we failed—this is what raises us to a higher place.
A person who understands his mistake is in a higher place. He understands deeply, like a wise and experienced person, the problematic nature of what he did, and the new place in which he finds himself is a place both of caution and of understanding.
But it is not only the understanding of the problematic nature that raises us to a better place; the process itself, with its pain and its pleasantness, is an inseparable part of the matter. The path to our becoming better people is part of the thing itself.
For the elevation of the soul of Michael ben David
From the community archive of Mishpetei HaRav Kook — studying Rav Kook's teachings since 2011.