Youthful Past Transformed Into Merit Through The Ohr Hachaim

When Rav Chaim Dovid, the doctor of Pietrokow, lay on his sickbed, he was visited by the Tiferes Shlomo. The Rebbe found the good doctor crying and he thought that he was crying over the misdeeds of his youth, since he was a ba’al teshuva. The Tiferes Shlomo asked him, “Why are you crying? Don’t worry your past. Those days will fall away and be forgiven and forgotten.”

Rav Chaim Dovid answered the Tiferes Shlomo, “I do not wish them to fall away and be forgotten. Rather, I wish to do teshuva out of love! Then all my intentional transgressions will be transformed into merits! And in the merit of studying the sefer Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh on a weekly basis and memorizing it, surely they will all become zechuyos (merits)!” (Kodesh Hillulim p. 75)