When a person brings himself to clarity, when he feels regret and confesses his aveiros clearly, and when he asks Hashem, “Please help me. I cannot do it alone [as we are taught: If not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu helps a person, he could never be victorious against the yetzer hara]—how much siyatta diShmaya will he merit! And then he can further say, “Today, I did teshuvah. I don’t know what will happen in the future. I hope and I daven to Hashem that He will help me.... In any case, I am deeply ashamed of the past.”
A person need not advertise his transgressions, as we learn from the pasuk חטאה כסוי פשע נשוי אשרי, praiseworthy is one whose sin transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered over. But internally, he must clarify the specific transgressions for which he is regretful—being able to come and daven secure in the knowledge that he has committed teshuvah. The Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizensk guides us to awake in the early hours of the day and cry bitter tears in order to erase his aveiros and remove the ...הלב טמטום and this person has fulfilled this in its entirety.
But there is no limit to the depths of teshuvah that a person can do... as we have noted, this mitzvah preceded the creation of the world, and it is a mitzvah that encompasses everything, all of Torah—for it touches the essence of our existence, and returns us to our previous selves so we can truly change and come close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The main thing is that a person must know that teshuvah is a mitzvah that we must carry out in fact, and there are set times for it. One of these times, according to the Arizal and the Ba’al Shem Tov, is before Kriyas Shemah al HaMittah. One should designate this time for confessing to the Ribbono shel Olam what he has done wrong, and daven that he should be assisted. Then he will see that true changes—not just passing emotions—will transpire in his life.
