Don’t Be Fazed by Past Mistakes

One of the cornerstone teachings of Chassidus is that past mistakes should not leave a person feeling dejected or discouraged. In conversations and correspondence, the Rebbe encouraged people not to brood over the past, and to focus on what needs to be done rather than on themselves.

“It is certainly unnecessary to point out to him that one should not become disheartened if a mistake was made in the past in one’s conduct in certain matters, such as those reported to me,” the Rebbe wrote in 5719 to Italy’s shliach Reb Gershon Mendel Garelik, when he was feeling down over past mistakes.

“After all, such things are commonplace in human endeavors,” the Rebbe continued, citing the words of Chazal that a person doesn’t fully understand a halachic matter unless he has first stumbled in it.

“A person learns much more from mistakes about how to conduct oneself properly in the future.”

(Igros Kodesh, Vol. 18, p. 251)