Yom Kippur - Vezos HaBeracha

As Moshe nears his death, he takes the opportunity to give one last blessing to the shevatim; however instead of going in order he puts Yehuda after Reuvain.

Rashi says he did that because both Yehuda and Reuvain admitted to a wrongdoing they did.
Rashi continues with the gemara that says that during the forty years in the desert, the bones of Yehuda were rattling around in the coffin because he accepted excommunication on himself. Moshe said in Yehuda's favor "who caused Reuvain to admit his wrongdoing? Yehuda.” In that merit, Yehuda’s bones stopped rattling and went into their proper place.

The question is: how could it be that Yehuda caused Reuvain to admit his wrongdoing when the teshuva that Yehuda did was for the story with Tamar. We know that Reuvain was doing teshuva even before Yosef was sold, which was way before the story with Tamar even happened. How could it be that Yehuda caused Reuvain to do teshuva when he hadn't even sinned yet?

The Chasam Sofer once stated in a Shabbos Shuva drasha that the posuk says סור מרע ועשה טוב, separate from evil and do good. First you have to separate from evil and then you can do good. That's the way teshuva has to be done; first you have to resolve to remove yourself from sin and then do good, unlike people who will go to shul, daven and say tehillim. However, when they leave shul, they go back to repeating the same sins as before. As the Rambam explains teshuva, one has to leave his evil ways and resolve in his heart not to sin anymore. Only then will he be forgiven for the past; the main thing is to say aloud and admit what he’s doing wrong and resolve not to do it anymore.

The ממעינות הנצח says that first Reuvain thought that the way to do teshuva was by fasting, davening and wearing sackcloth. As Rashi explains why Reuvain wasn't there when Yosef was sold, because he was busy fasting;
He was busy doing what he thought was teshuva.
That's what he learned from Yehuda, that the real teshuva is the admission of what you did wrong and the resolve not to do it again.The purification of your heart is what counts.

Sometimes it’s hard to make a real resolve. Do we just give up?
Rav Shach said that he heard from רב יחזקאל לונשטין an insight on how to approach teshuva. While in Russia, when it would snow, every person was responsible to shovel in front of his house or shop and the police would come around to make sure it was be done. If it wasn't, they would issue a ticket. The people didn't really want to shovel so much so when the police would come around, they would grab a shovel and start shoveling so the police would think that they were doing it and leave them alone.

The mashgiach continued, even if we can't do a proper teshuva, at least grab the shovel and start the process.
This Yom Kippur, let’s learn from Yehuda not just to pay lip service without changing our ways. Rather we must resolve to remove ourselves from sin admit what we did wrong and at least start the process to become better people!