“When you are in distress and all these things have befallen you, at the end of days, you will return unto Hashem, your G-d, and hearken to His voice” ^(Devarim 4:30)
&“You will return unto Hashem, your G-d, and listen to His voice, according to everything that I command you today, you and your children, will all your heart and all your soul” ^(ibid. 30:2)
“Return, O wayward sons, and I will heal your waywardness” ^(Yirmeyahu 3:22)
How great is teshuvah, for it brings healing to the world, as the pasuk states, “Return, O wayward sons, and I will heal your waywardness” ^(Yoma 86).
“Return, Israel, unto Hashem, your G-d, for you have stumbled in your sin”
^(Hoshea 14:2)
The Ibn Ezra expounds: One should return to Hashem, slowly but surely. For you have stumbled in your sin, and there is no one to lift you but Hashem.
The Radak writes, upon the words “for you have stumbled in your sin”: The only thing which can extricate you from your sins is the power of teshuvah. The word עד (until) is used here to mean to. Our Sages interpret the word עד to mean until. They state, “How great is teshuvah, for it reaches until the Heavenly Throne.”
Hashem’s hands are outstretched to accept penitents. He asks, “When will they repent so that I can fully accept them?” as the pasuk says (Yechezkel 1:8), “There were human hands under their wings” (Eliyahu Zuta, Parashah 22).
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto (Rif, Ein Yaakov, Me’or Einayim, Yoma 88a; Ta’anit 16a) expounds on the pasuk (Mishlei 28:13) “Hashem will have mercy on one who confesses and abandons [his sin]” in the following way. Since a person forsakes his previous iniquity by repaying for what he stole, he will be forgiven. If he forsakes his previous sins during his confession and pays back what he stole, then even if he returns to his former ways of iniquity, his previous sins remain forgiven. However, for this reason, we say (Eichah 3:61), “Let us lift our hearts with our hands to G-d in heaven.” One must lift his heart heavenward so that he completely repent his wayward ways and never repeat them. This is the most exalted level of teshuvah.
The Mashgiach, Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein said: The greatness of teshuvah is that through it, one achieves complete closeness with Hashem. This greatness is unique to the mitzvah of teshuvah, above all other mitzvot. Through doing other mitzvot, one reaches certain levels. But through teshuvah, one is elevated to literally cleaving to Hashem. This is meant by the injunction, “Return, Israel, unto Hashem, your G-d.”
When a person does teshuvah and confesses his sins, the forces of impurity are overcome with shame and disappointment. Conversely, the forces of holiness are filled with tremendous, unlimited joy. This joy replaces their original sorrow and shame. This joy is double ordinary joy. For, if man had never sinned, what would be the purpose of joy? But now that the negative forces had great joy and then met their downfall, their joy is converted to sorrow. When kedushah perceives the fall of its enemies, and their humiliation and suffering, its own joy is increased. This level of joy can be attained only by the one who does teshuvah (Chessed L’Avraham).
