Tawba · turning

The first station of the path, and the word means turning: to turn back from what one was going toward. Every manual begins here, and the masters insist it is not a single event but a posture kept up for life.

Two languages, one gesture, and the same grammar. Tawba and teshuvah both mean turning, both are the first move rather than the last, and both are ordinary — something done this week, about something specific, and then done again.