The Power of Teshuvah: You Can Rise Higher Than the Greatest Tzaddik - Rabbi Zamir Cohen

When a person repents out of love, it is a completely different level. The Gemara in tractate Yoma says that even repentance out of fear atones for sins, but with repentance out of love, willful sins turn into merits. And about this it is said that where those who have repented stand, even completely righteous people cannot stand. This is not said about everyone. Not every person who repents immediately surpasses the completely righteous, only if they repented [music] out of love. And why? Because a person who has repented, let's say a person who for a whole year desecrated the Sabbath, or more than that, or less, it doesn't matter, is now repenting. If he repents out of fear, then all his Sabbath desecrations are erased, he is not punished for it, as if he didn't live during those days. So, it is neither a commandment nor a transgression. A person who repents out of [music] love, their intentional sins turn into merits. What he desecrated the Sabbath intentionally, the Holy One, blessed be He, counts it for him as if he kept the Sabbath fully. He gives him a reward for that Sabbath he desecrated. He receives a reward as if he kept the Sabbath fully. Now, take a great righteous person who kept the Sabbath. After all, there's a level of total Sabbath observance. Sometimes he misses subtleties. Let's say he reached 98%, the great righteous person. Someone who desecrated the Sabbath, but now repents out of [music] love, has a perfect Sabbath. It is 100%, not 98, because their intentional sins have become merits. The Holy One granted them a perfect Sabbath, placing them above the greatest righteous people, as even the most perfect righteous person cannot reach such a level.