Cain murdered his brother. He could not have committed a more heinous deed during those days on earth. Yet he did not despair. Instead, he clung to God, in his own way, and made teshuvah.
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav said:
Even if a person has fallen to a low level, he must strengthen himself and not despair at all. God’s greatness is much higher than the Torah: on God’s level, everything can be rectified, for repentance is even higher than the Torah.”
I asked him “But how does one reach this?”
He answered, “One can reach this as long as one does not despair from crying out and praying. One should remain untiring until one finally succeeds.”
This is because the essence of repentance is crying out to God. (Sichot Haran, no. 3; in The Chambers of the Palace, ed. Y. David Shulman, 31)
Perhaps this is what Paul meant in his Letter to the Romans, when he wrote, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.”
There is a way back, always, from however far away we have slipped, from whatever depths we have become mired in.
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