"There are many levels of repentance.
One person may need to make greater and more intense efforts toward Divine unity.
Another may desire no more than to be able to make an honest living.
There is also a matter of proportion.
The more one has been sunk in sin, the greater the pressure to emerge.
Just as a dam holds back a body of water, the higher the dam, the greater is the power that can afterward be extracted from the release.
All of this means that the sinner has to go through the intervening stages of growth and comprehension.
The more he learns of the magnitude of his past transgressions, the more painful is the knowledge and the more effective is the transformation."
--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From Pebbles of Wisdom from Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
