Musar su Geremia 4:8

The fourth principle in repentance is the sorrow and the pain caused by the actual doing of the deeds of repentance. Thus far we have spoken about the pain and sorrow of the heart, but this concerns the pain and the sorrow of the repentant act itself, as it is said, "Yet even now, saith the Lord, turn ye unto Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping, and with lamentation" (Joel 2:12). And a man must show the signs of pain and sorrow in his garments, for example, to put on sackcloth, as it is said, "For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail" (Jer. 4:8). And as it is said, "But let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast" (Jonah 3:8). And he must remove his lovely garments from him and he must reduce his pleasures, in the kinds of food he eats and in his drink and in strolling about. And our Sages said, "The heart and the eyes are the two agents of sin" (T.P. Berakoth 1:8). And thus is it written, "And that ye go not about after your own heart and your own eyes" (Num. 15:39). Therefore only in this way can the sin brought about by these agents be atoned for : the sin of the agent of the heart, by bitterness and pain, and the wrong of the agent of the eyes, by tears. As it is said, "Mine eyes run down with rivers of water, because they observe not Thy law" (Ps. 119:136). It is not said, "because I observe not," but "because they observe not." The plural form refers to the eyes, that spied out to explore sin, therefore have I caused rivers of water to descend from my eyes. When he weeps over his sins, he should say, "May my tears quench the wrath of your anger and may my repentant deeds turn away your anger from me, and let my table, which I have not set because of my sorrow, be considered as an altar arranged for sacrifice, and the pot which I did not place upon the coals, as fire burning upon Thy altar. And may the lack of my blood, the diminution resulting from fasting, atone as the blood which is offered on the corners of the altar. And may the lessening of my fat be as the fat which is offered from the sacrifices, and the sound of my weeping as the psalms of the poets, and the aroma of my soul's hunger as the aroma of the incense, and the weakness of my limbs as the cutting of portions for the sacrifice, and may my broken heart tear the books in which my sins are recorded. And may the change of my good garments for garments of mourning be as acceptable to you as are the garments of the priesthood, and my restraint from washing (because of my sorow)as though I had sanctified my hands and feet, and may my repentance restore me to Thee, for I am truly remorseful for the evil of my deeds that I did and I shall not return to do evil before Thee.