The twelfth-century Sephardic philosopher and rabbi Moses ben Maimon, known as Maimonides, arguably one of the most prolific and influential Jewish scholars, wrote a ten-chapter Laws of Repentance, which codifies a playbook for repairing relationships. Of the six steps he directs the person who has caused harm to take, an apology doesn’t occur until step five. First, he writes, we must stop doing the harm. Next, confess as specifically as possible what harm you have caused and, ideally, say this truth out loud in public.
