Adapted from: Living Emunah on Yamim Noraim by Rabbi David Ashear

Sometimes people wish they could turn back the clock and do certain things differently. With teshuvah, Hashem allows us to change the past. A person who spent the entire year ignoring certain mitzvos and doing different aveiros can correct it all with a few moments of teshuvah. Whatever he has done can be completely erased. And if a person comes to realize the greatness of Hashem and how much He does for him, and therefore regrets his sins, that’s called teshuvah out of love, and transforms the sins into mitzvos.

During the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, our teshuvah is easily accepted. At the time we need it most, while our judgment is hanging in the balance, Hashem makes it the easiest to accomplish. At the time of judgment, a person can eradicate all his crimes and make the judgment the most favorable possible. It is very simple: All the person must do is admit what he did wrong, regret it, and accept to improve going forward. One should never feel that what he did is beyond teshuvah. Hashem specifically took us to be His nation while we were on the forty-ninth level of tumah. The Jewish People at that time were on the lowest level possible, and just seven weeks later they were as close to Hashem as possible.

Regarding teshuvah, the Rambam writes (Hilchos Teshuvah 7:6) that whereas before teshuvah the person was very distant from Hashem, after teshuvah he is beloved, desirable, close, and dear to Hashem. Chazal (Berachos 34b) say: b’makom shebaalei teshuvah omdim ein tzadikim gemurim yecholim laamod. The Kedushas Levi writes in Parashas Shemini explaining this Chazal that Hashem derives more pleasure from a sinner who did teshuvah than from a completely righteous individual. The reason he says this is because the baal teshuvah had to fight off his strong evil inclination to stop his wrongdoings. It is so special to Hashem when we fight the yetzer hara to do His will.

The Kedushas Levi writes there that if we contemplate the fact that we are so insignificant in comparison to Hashem, yet we can bring Him pleasure with our avodah, that should ignite our hearts to be filled with joy and excitement to serve Him. We can’t imagine how much He enjoys every little thing we do, and therefore, we shouldn’t underestimate it.

Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein told of a man who would always come to shul about seven minutes late, no matter what time the minyan started. If it was a 7:00 minyan, he would get there at 7:07. If it was an 8:00 minyan, 8:07. One day, the rabbi asked him about it and the man said, “What’s the big deal? A few minutes here, a few minutes there, the main thing is that I come.”

This practice continued for quite some time until one day this man walked in exactly on time. The rabbi asked him what changed. He said that Hashem taught him a very powerful lesson.

He explained that the day before, one of his warehouses caught fire. He was there at the time. He called the fire department and waited anxiously for help to arrive. Every minute that went by, another part of his warehouse was consumed in flames. By the time the firefighters finally got there, they were only able to salvage a very small section.

“What took you so long?” he demanded.

“We were only delayed a few minutes,” one of the firefighters replied defensively. “The main thing is that we got here. What’s a few minutes, anyway?”

Those words struck him like a lightning bolt. They were the same words he used when telling the rabbi about coming to shul late. He realized the value of every minute and accepted upon himself, going forward, to be on time to shul.

Hashem has nachas from everything we do in the spiritual realms. Every second is valuable. If we haven’t performed as well as we are capable of until now, we can easily do teshuvah, erase the past, and start afresh.