One year before Yom Kippur, the great sage Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk sat in his study, worrying. “How shall I face God on Yom Kippur—I have committed so many transgressions?” He began to count them one by one. As he reflected on the ways he had fallen short in the year that had passed, he was filled with sorrow, heart broken about his behavior. “Well then,” he said, “may my broken heart stand me in good stead on the Judgement Day.”
Regret alone will not make us worthy of forgiveness but it is the beginning of repentance. Now is the time to reflect on our misdeeds, to be filled with remorse—heartbreak even—about the ways we have fallen short. And then we must change.
— Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
