Texts of Judaism

The Duties of the Heart: On the Possibility of Repentance

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This is a medieval Jewish ethical treatise — a work of *mussar* (moral instruction) — dealing with the theology and practice of repentance (*teshuvah*). The author distinguishes two categories of sin: offenses against God alone (such as heresy or impure thought) and offenses against other people, arguing that the latter are far harder to atone for because they require concrete restitution, not merely inner turning. The text catalogs the practical obstacles to making amends — the injured party may be unreachable, the stolen wealth may be gone, the harm (physical injury, slander) may be irreversible, or the wrongdoer may not even know who they harmed. Distinctively, Bachye argues that God actively assists the genuinely repentant sinner in overcoming these obstacles, going so far as to orchestrate worldly circumstances — restoring wealth, arranging encounters with distant victims — to make restitution possible. The only absolute barrier to atonement is insincerity: a divided or deceptive heart. The passage closes with a sharp, aphoristic claim that repentance is validated solely through deeds, not words.

The Duties of the Heart: On the Possibility of Repentance

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