The call to teshuva is a call to everyone.
It is a call to break through the barriers of remoteness, to disregard concerns about what others might say, to detach one’s thought from the influence of foreign cultures.
Each individual is called upon to search within the hidden recesses of his heart, to engage anew in soul-searching, to make a grand reckoning of his life, and to return wholeheartedly to God.
It is not a disgrace to reexamine one’s way of life; it is not a shame to admit, “We have gone astray, we have led astray.”
So many of our errors and deviations were rooted in good intentions, in fine aspirations, although the course of life was misleading and led far afield.
It is not embarrassing to admit, “We have erred.”
On the contrary, it is a disgrace to retain, out of feeble-mindedness, a mistaken path.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz