What is teshuvah (repentance) in the Torah?

Teshuvah, usually translated "repentance" but literally meaning "return," is the Torah's term for turning back to God after wrongdoing. Its clearest statement is Deuteronomy 30:1-3: "When all these things have come upon you... and you return to the LORD your God... then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes." The passage frames teshuvah as national and covenantal - exile is not the end of the relationship between Israel and God, because return is always available. Leviticus 26:40-42 gives teshuvah its structure: the people must "confess their iniquity," acknowledge that their suffering was deserved, and only then does God "remember" the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Confession itself (viduy) appears as a concrete ritual act elsewhere in the Torah - Leviticus 5:5 requires a person who realizes their guilt to confess it, and on Yom Kippur the high priest confesses the sins of the whole people over the scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21. What distinguishes teshuvah from simple regret is that it requires a change in behavior, not just a change in feeling: Numbers 5:6-7 pairs confession with restitution, telling a wrongdoer to "confess their sin" and "make full restitution for the wrong, adding a fifth to it." So the Torah's model of repentance moves through three stages that later rabbinic tradition would systematize further: recognizing and naming the specific wrong, confessing it openly rather than concealing it, and taking concrete action - restitution, changed conduct, a literal "return" - to repair what was broken. It is less an emotional state than a directional decision: turning back toward the covenant one has walked away from.