DEUT127 Freedom As The Ground For The Call To Repentance. While, as we have seen, the concept of free will is a "great principle and pillar of the Torah and the mitzvah," its most dramatic expression in Judaism is undoubtedly to be found in the concept of repentance, called teshuvah, or "return." This is the call that issues forth repeatedly from the Torah: "Return, O Israel, unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast stumbled in thine iniquity. Take with you words and return unto the Lord" (Hosea 14:2-3). No matter how far Israel may stray, he will ultimately return [this and following verses]. And speaking of repentance, the Torah assures us: (Deuteronomy 30:11-14]. In innumerable teachings, and a variety of ways, the rabbis reinforced and elaborated this basic teaching of the Torah and the prophets that the gates of repentance are always open, that God is anxious for man to repent, and that it is never too late (Deuteronomy Rabbah 11,12; Ezekiel 33:11; Kiddushin 40b). Clearly, it is one thing to believe that man has freedom of will and, in an open field of alternatives, can respond to moral imperatives. It is quite another, however, to believe that man who has sinned, who has soiled his soul, and who has beclouded his reason by succumbing to the temptations of lust and pride, can ever extricate himself from the clutches of entrenched sin that has become habit. Does not the sinner cease to be called a "child of God"? The answer of the Torah is a thundering no! The sinner can return (Isaiah 55:7).