The Zohar Hakadosh (129A) states about this verse: “Rav Yehuda began to explain by citing the verse (Tehillim 65:5): ‘Praiseworthy is he whom You choose and draw near to dwell in Your courts.’ Praiseworthy is the man whose ways are favorable before Hashem and He wants him to be close to Him.”
Avrohom always wanted to be close to Hashem. Throughout his entire life, he strove to draw near to Him. He didn’t reach this closeness in one day. Rather, with his good actions, he drew closer to Him little by little, getting a bit nearer each day, until he finally reached his loftiest level in his old age. This is seen from the pasuk that says that when Avrohom was old, he was “advanced in days”, meaning that when he got old, he reached a very lofty spiritual level.
While this is the normal way to draw close to Hashem, baalei teshuva are able to jump to lofty levels in one day, or even in one moment, in a manner that even complete tzadikim cannot emulate. Avrohom Avinu himself was only able to get close to Hashem after many years, and Dovid Hamelech also only reached the level of being “advanced in days” once he got old (1 Malachim 1:1), but a baal teshuva can connect to Hashem in an instant.
For this reason, Chazal say (Brachos 34B) that in the place where baalei teshuva stand, even complete tzadikim cannot stand. Even pure tzadikim can only connect to Hashem after years of work, but baalei teshuva can get close to Him in an instant.
In this vein, Sefer Otzar Haspurim (Chelek 3, Ois 10) relates a story that occurred with the holy brothers, Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk zy”a and Rav Zushe zy”a while they were in self-imposed exile to atone for the sins of the world. They once entered a tavern and saw a group of older men playing cards. Rav Elimelech said to his brother, “Zushe, tell them something!”
Rav Zushe banged on the table and said, “Friends, you should know that the yeitzer hara has quit its job.”
When they asked him why, he said, “The yeitzer hara once went into Gan Eden and, to his great surprise, he came across the souls of people who had ‘belonged to him’ when they were alive. He was shocked to see them sitting together with the tzadikim and basking in the presence of the Shechinah.”
He asked how these souls ended up in Gan Eden after doing so many aveiros, and he was told that they had done teshuva and rectified their ways and, therefore, they merited being with the tzadikim in paradise. The yeitzer hara then sadly said, “If this is true, I am working hard for nothing. I work for years to convince people to sin, but they can still do teshuva and make it to Gan Eden!”
Rav Zushe said, “That’s why he quit and another angel was given his job.”
He continued to relate that a while later, the old yeitzer hara met the new one and asked him how things were going. The new yeitzer hara answered that everything was going well. The old yeitzer hara told him, “You are wasting your time. You are working for years to get a person to sin, but he may still do teshuva and get to go to Gan Eden.”
The new yeitzer hara responded, “You messed up by working on young people and trying to get them to do aveiros. When they got old, they were still able to do teshuva. That’s not what I do. I convince old people like these to sin...
At this point, Rav Zushe pointed at the old men playing cards, and continued to say, “Since old people don’t have time to do teshuva before they die, the new yeitzer hara devotes himself to convincing them to play cards and waste the remainder of their lives so that they will die without doing teshuva.”
With these clever words, he touched the old men’s hearts and got them to repent.
