Marriage is a wonderful thing. Everyone gets married. But what happens if a person gets married conditionally? You have a person who is a despot, a degenerate, a rasha (wicked person), and he says he’s a rasha. He’s a rasha, and he’s married. He had a fleeting thought of repenting, and because of that, he’s married.
Now the Rambam says teshuva (repentance) means that the One who discerns the hearts and minds of mankind can testify that he will never return to his foolish ways. So how could there be anything? How does the Mesader Kiddushin (wedding officiant) tell the two witnesses, “If they’re kosher (valid) witnesses, they’re kosher, and if not, not”? What does a fleeting moment of teshuva mean? An amazing, astonishing thing: when a person really wants to do the right thing, he’s automatically considered a tzaddik (righteous person), and he will never return to the negative lifestyle. And if indeed he does, that’s because the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) turned a tzaddik into a rasha. But for a moment, a fleeting moment of a hirhur of teshuva, a thought of repentance, we’ve believed that he’s married.
Rav Tzadok and Chazal are teaching us what it means to have one good, pristine thought: to regret, to have remorse, to train, to control, to think that you’re a good person. The Ribbono Shel Olam (Master of the Universe) considers you a tzaddik, and in Shamayim (Heaven), it’s recorded that you’re a tzaddik. Let’s strengthen ourselves with those moments. Let’s work and realize our potential. Let’s take them for what they are: hirhurei teshuva, the moments of greatness. We’ll be searching the greatness in this world and the next.