A Different Kind of Baal Teshuvah

When Rav Avrohom Elimelech of Karlin visited Yerushalayim, Rav Mordechai of Slonim went to see him. He asked the tzaddik teasingly, "They say that your zeide, Rav Aharon the Great of Karlin, made some eighty thousand baalei teshuvah. Nu, so where are yours?"

Rav Avrohom Elimelech answered, "The sinners in my great-grandfather's day had passions and desires. My zeide showed them how to taste the delight and vitality in avodas Hashem. He channeled their energy into holiness, each force turned toward its opposite pole, and in this way he turned them around to the path of true goodness. In our generation, however, the sinners are apostates and faithless. They stray after kefirah and apikorsus. I doubt that my zeide would have made baalei teshuvah out of them."