God has mercy on all of His creatures, and helps even evildoers return to Him through repentance. He removes them from darkness by implanting the path to repentance into their hearts and the path to healing into their souls. Even though a person caused ruin through sinning, nothing holds him back from repenting. God accepts all who repent and has mercy on them.

God accepts the repentance of all:

Nothing in the world stands in the way of repentance, and the Holy One, blessed be He, certainly accepts all penitents. If a person repents, the path to life is ready before him. Even though he caused damage through sin, all is repaired, and everything returns back to its repaired state…. Therefore, this person, even though he transgressed and caused damage where he should not have, when he repents before God He accepts him and has mercy over him. For the Holy One, blessed be He, is full of mercy and He is full of mercy toward all of His creations.

God helps the evildoer repent:

Come and see what is written: “He went waywardly in the way of his heart” (Isaiah 57:17). Afterward it is written: “I saw his ways and I will heal him; I will guide him and pay condolences to him and his mourners” (Isaiah 57:18). The verse states that “he went waywardly.” Even though the evildoers do what they do purposely, for they went “in the way of their heart,” and others warn them but they do not want to pay attention to them, nevertheless when they repent and choose the good path of repentance, healing is presented before them…. The Holy One, blessed be He, sees his ways, pointlessly going after evil. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I must strengthen him. This is what is written: “I saw his ways,” that they go in the darkness. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I want to give him healing. This is what is written: “I will heal him.” The Holy One, blessed be He, introduces the way of repentance into his heart and healing into his soul. “I will guide him”…. The Holy One, blessed be He, guides him on the straight path, like one who holds another’s hand and takes him out of the darkness. (Zohar 2:106b)

The spiritual level of a penitent is greater than the level of the righteous, for the penitent tasted of sin yet abandoned it. It is forbidden to remind a penitent of his past. If he hears himself being belittled for his past, he should be humble and lowly and know that his level will be even higher.

Penitents are on a higher level than the righteous:

One who repents should not imagine that he is distant from the level of the righteous because of the transgressions and sins that he did. This is not the case. Rather, he is beloved and dear before the Creator as if he never sinned at all. Not only that, but his reward is great, for he tasted the taste of sin and separated himself from it and conquered his evil inclination. Our Sages said: “In the place where penitents stand, even the full-fledged righteous do not stand” (Berakhot 34b). This means: Their level is greater than those who never sinned at all, because the penitents conquered their evil inclination more than the righteous did.

The greatness of repentance:

How lofty is the level of repentance! Yesterday this person was separated from the God of Israel…. He would cry out to Him and not be answered…fulfill commandments and they would be torn up before him…and today he clings to the Divine Presence…. He calls out and is answered immediately…fulfills commandments and they are accepted with satisfaction and joy…. Furthermore, his actions are desired.

It is forbidden to mention to a penitent his past deeds:

The way of penitents is to be exceedingly lowly and humble. If fools scorn them about their previous deeds and say to them, “Yesterday you did such and such and yesterday you used to say such and such,” the penitents should not concern themselves with these fools. They should just listen, be joyous, and know that this is a merit for them. For whenever they are ashamed of the acts they sinned through and embarrassed by them, their merit is great and their level grows. It is an outright sin to say to a penitent, “Remember your previous actions,” to mention them before him to embarrass him, or to mention things or matters similar to them in order to remind him of what he did. (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuva 7:4–8)

My Soul, Prepare Provisions

My soul, prepare plentiful provisions, do not hold back

while you are still alive and have the ability, for the way is long.

Do not say, “Tomorrow I will take provisions,” for the day is passing,

and you do not know what the day will bring.

Know that yesterday will never return

and all that you did then is weighed, counted, and calculated.

Do not say “Tomorrow I will do it,”

for the day of death is hidden from all.

Hurry and do each day’s amount

for death at any time can send its arrow or lightning bolt.

Do not delay from doing each and every day’s amount,

for like a bird moves away from its nest, so a man moves from his place.

A hasid who was pursued by the Communist regime in Russia hid for a while with a family in a remote village. One night a terrible tragedy happened; the mother put her infant baby to sleep next to her in bed, and apparently smothered her during her sleep. The hasid recounted: “I was lying in my bed and heard how the woman was walking to and fro in the house and muttering to herself, ‘What did I do! What did I do!’ This lasted several hours. After that, she started to mutter: ‘What do we do now? What do we do now?’”

Do not give up hope about repenting. A person can still redeem his soul through repentance and good deeds even if he sinned over and over again and did much evil in God’s eyes for his entire life. Despite [his sins], the gates of repentance are not locked. (Rabbi Elimelekh of Lizhensk, Noam Elimelekh, Emor)

Further reading: For more on hope and despair, see p. 311.