One concept is implicit throughout the Bible, essential to the message of the prophets and made explicit in the book of Jonah. Yet it was only in the rabbinic period, following the destruction of the Second Temple, that it became the subject of systematic reflection. It is the idea of teshuvah, usually translated as ‘repentance’.10 Literally it means ‘return’ – in Christianity metanoia, in Islam tabwa, in secular terms moral change and growth.
