Wagonloads of Penitence
An observant Jew, whose family keeps Shabbat and learns Torah, once came to me. In the past, he was as far from a Torah lifestyle as north from south. He and his wife lived with wild abandon. Their life was self-contradictory. On the one hand, they did acts of kindness, but on the other hand, they committed every sin in the Book.
“What brought you to do teshuvah?” I wondered.
“One day, we happened to hear words of inspiration which turned our lives upside-down. We realized that we were walking in the wrong direction. Eventually, we did complete teshuvah.”
“See Hashem’s wonderful chessed with you,” I told him. “In His infinite mercy, He led you to hear that speech which brought you back to Him. Certainly, you must have done a big mitzvah beforehand, to deserve such a large dose of siyata di’Shemaya. From on High, they saw that you wished to go in the right path. Therefore, you were led there.”
The man agreed with me. He said that he had heard the speech in the middle of Yom Kippur; afterwards, he decided to make a change in his life.
This is precisely what Chazal meant by the statement (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 5:3), “Hashem told Bnei Yisrael: My sons, open for Me an opening in teshuvah the size of a needle-hole, and I will open for you openings which wagons can enter.”
