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Half full or empty? This is the question

If a person approaches t'shuva with this attitude, he will always focus on his shortcomings and sin, and not on his yearning and efforts to redress them. As the saying teaches, one should not focus on the half of the glass that is empty, but rather on the half which is full. Not understanding that his efforts to improve are what matter, and not the idealized vision of himself which he has not as yet achieved, he will always feel anxious, unfulfilled and forlorn.

Rabbi Kook explains that this misplacing of priorities between the means and the goal stems from the sin of the earth during the days of Creation. By understanding the depth of this teaching, we can learn to be happy, not only when we attain our goals and ideals, but also at every moment of our lives.

How is the gulf between means and the goal, between the imperfect and the ideal, to be bridged? Through t'shuva. What will cause all of the details of human endeavor and the final building to merge in pleasant harmony? T'shuva. The light of t'shuva penetrates all of the details of life, all of the stages of mending and repair, and fills them all with the taste of the final ideal.