לרפואת רודש יהודית בת בריינדל לאה ושרה לאה בת רבקה בתוך שח"י
Is Teshuva hard? One one hand - it seems pretty simple. A person does something wrong and regrets it and decides never to do it again.
Is Teshuva hard? One one hand - it seems pretty simple. A person does something wrong and regrets it and decides never to do it again.
But it is not so easy. The Rambam's example of Teshuva [במעשה] is that he was with the same woman with whom he had previously sinned, same time, same place etc. and didn't sin. However, there is also Teshuva in one's mind and heart, that he never wants this act to happen again. Why did he do this act in the first place?? Because it was so pleasurable!! So why would he NOT want to do it again?? Man, by nature, is a pleasure seeker. We were CREATED to receive pleasure [as explicated by the Ramchal]. We just get artificial, hormone and chemically induced pleasure mixed up with the REAL LASTING ETERNAL pleasure of the soul being close to Hashem. But bottom line - WE WANT PLEASURE!!! So why wouldn't a person want the very pleasurable sin to happen again? And if he DOES want a repeat - then he hasn't properly done Teshuva??!
To compound the problem: Sin has a way of corrupting one's thoughts. So the moment one sins it becomes part of his psyche making it ALL THE MORE DIFFICULT to change.
A discussion of this quagmire here.
