ואין עולים משם עד כי יבוא יומם ויבולע המות לנצח, כמו שכתוב: ואת רוח הטומאה אעביר מן הארץ
They (the vitality of these prohibited acts) are not elevated from [the kelipot] until “their day comes” (the time when evil will totally disappear from the world), when “death (i.e., the kelipot, called ”death“ because they oppose G‑dliness, which is life) will be swallowed up i.e., eradicated forever,” as it is written:7 “And I (G‑d) will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” Then, when the kelipot cease to exist, the sparks of holiness will of themselves be freed from them.
או עד שיעשה תשובה גדולה כל כך שזדונות נעשו לו כזכיות ממש
Or, until the sinner repents in the manner presently described, in which case the sparks of holiness need not remain in the clutches of the kelipot until the End of Days; they may even be freed, and restored to holiness, when he (the sinner) repents so earnestly that his premeditated sins become transmuted into veritable merits.
שהיא תשובה מאהבה מעומקא דלבא, באהבה וחשיקה ונפש שוקקה לדבקה בו יתברך
This is achieved through “repentance out of love (of G‑d),” coming from the depths of the heart, with great love and fervor, and from a soul passionately desiring to cleave to the blessed G‑d,
וצמאה נפשו לה׳ כארץ עיפה וציה
and thirsting for G‑d like a parched and barren soil thirsts desperately for water.
להיות כי עד הנה היתה נפשו בארץ ציה וצלמות, היא הסטרא אחרא, ורחוקה מאור פני ה׳ בתכלית
For inasmuch as till now until he repented his soul had been in a barren wilderness and in the shadow of death, which is the sitra achra, and had been far removed from the light of the Divine Countenance, in the greatest possible measure,
ולזאת צמאה נפשו ביתר עז מצמאון נפשות הצדיקים
therefore, now that he “repents out of love” his soul thirsts for G‑d even more intensely than the souls of the righteous who have never sinned.
The righteous tzaddik, ever close to G‑d, is like one who always has water near at hand — his thirst is never so intense. The penitent, however, finds himself as if in a desert, where the very absence of water causes his thirst to burn with greater intensity.
כמאמרם ז״ל: במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים כו׳
As our Sages say:8 “Where penitents stand…[not even the perfectly righteous can stand]. For, as explained earlier, the tzaddik lacks the penitent’s intense yearning for G‑d.
