As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 204-206, no. 12
At one point during Simchas Torah, 5685 (1924), in Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz exclaimed passionately, "What sort of chossid sleeps until nine in the morning and, already by ten, has finished davening, eaten break-fast, and is strolling along Nevesky Street (Leningrad's main thoroughfare), directing his eyes at the wrong places? With the notion that by wearing a kapotah and gartel he is a chossid. Or, he imagines, by giving three rubles [to the Rebbe], he is a chossid. Now three rubles are three rubles – but that won't do it.
"R. Hillel (Paritcher) once said that he doesn't like one who strayed and did teshuvah – such a person went far astray, and who knows what sort of teshuvah he did?
"For sure, stripping oneself naked is not the inten-tion; but there is a concept of confessing one's mis-deeds.
"In truth there's a question: How can we under-stand the precept, In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, perfect tzaddikim are unable to stand?59 This one ate pupiks (gizzards) – while the other one learned Torah and davened! The answer is: He is not the same person; he is someone else."60
And the Rebbe turned to a young man from Kherson living in Moscow: "It's not you... You must take upon yourself 'divrei chavrus';61 you will give a Kiddush on Shabbos Bereishis.
"Everyone must take upon himself 'divrei chavrus' that he will not sleep past seven in the morning (an early hour for Leningrad's winters, when sunrise is at nine)."
59. Berachos 34b.
60. He has transformed himself entirely. See also Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah 2:4: "The way of teshuvah is ... saying, 'I am someone else and not the same person who did those actions."
61. A term borrowed from the days of the Mishna, when there were conditions to be considered a "chaver" (a Jew of integrity who could be trusted regarding maaser [tithes] and ritual purity).