(or ḥozer bi-teshuvah; "one who has returned, repented"). Hebrew term for a penitent who returns to the ways of religion; also applied in recent years to a newly observant Jew. The rabbis showered praise on the ba'al teshuvah and made every effort to ensure that he was not handicapped by his previous conduct, forbidding anyone to embarrass him by recalling his sinful past (Pes. 119a, Yoma 86b, etc.). The Talmud declares that "the place where penitents stand cannot be attained even by the wholly righteous" (TB Ber. 34b; see also Repentance).
A contemporary phenomenon is the growth of the "Ba'al Teshuvah movement," with possibly thousands of non-observant Jews accepting Orthodox beliefs and practices. It emerged in the United States, largely as a reaction to the conflicts of the 1960s (which also led to the proliferation of alien Cults), and in Israel it resulted from the euphoria aroused by the 1967 Six-Day War. Most of those affected belonged to the younger sector of the population and were attracted to an ultra-Orthodox ideology and way of life. Traditionally, the ba'al teshuvah was a Jew who had gone astray but now repented of his wrongdoing. The modern ba'al teshuvah is usually not "returning" but adopting a religious life style for the first time. This has given rise to the establishment of special yeshivot for ba'alé teshuvah in various places, notably in Israel.
