Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 49

Likutay Moharan II, Torah 49: According to the Greatness of Hashem, Blessed Be He, and the Essence of His Exaltedness

According to the greatness of Hashem, blessed be He, and the essence of His exaltedness, blessed be He, with a slight movement in the world and a glance in the world that is not fitting for His honor, blessed be He, it would be fitting for what is fitting to come upon a person, heaven forbid, heaven forbid. But Hashem, blessed be He, is full of mercy, and the entire world is full of His mercy, and He wants the world greatly. Therefore, one must strengthen himself greatly in His service with whatever he can, even if he is as he is, and rely on His abundant mercies, very boundless, for certainly He will not abandon him, even if what passed passed. And henceforth, he should not do anymore, and he should be shev v’al taaseh [sit and do not act] in any case, both in thought and in deed. For also the thought of such people is also a deed, for also in the world of deed there is thought. And one must be shev v’al taaseh in deed and in thought, as mentioned above. And what is done with him automatically, he should not worry and not look at it at all. And know that the main complete teshuvah [repentance] is when a person passes through those very places where his teshuvah was before, each according to what passed over him in previous days. And when he passes through those places and matters where he was actually at the beginning, and now he turns his back on them and subdues his inclination not to do anymore what he did, this is the main complete teshuvah, and only this is called teshuvah. And it is a great virtue when a person still has an evil inclination, for then he can serve Him, blessed be He, with the evil inclination specifically, that is, to take all the fervor and warmth and introduce it into the service of Hashem, that is, to pray and beseech with the warmth and fervor of the heart, and the like. And if a person has no evil inclination, his service is not complete at all. And the main thing is to restrain and hold back the warmth at the time of desires and to place it at the time of tefillah [prayer] and service, there he should place his warmth and fervor into the service, as mentioned above. And even one who is not a worthy person, it happens to him sometimes that he prays with fervor, and this also comes from the warmth of the evil inclination that he has, only that he does not receive reward for this. But one who wants to conduct himself in worthiness, it is a great virtue when he still has an evil inclination, as mentioned above.