The concept of repentance is a recognition of the possibility of crossing the frontier, eluding the rigid consequences, and moving to a domain beyond that of cause and effect, sin and consequences.
The deeper the sin, the more powerful the repentance needed to correct it.
In this world beyond, it is possible to rewrite all of history.
The act of repentance is the rewriting of one's past life.
He who fully repents judges his past deeds and even transforms his iniquities into virtues.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From "The Inwardness of Evil" in In the Beginning by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz