ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, in reality, the movement for Jewish renewal should be understood as one more offering in the teshuvah market. "Teshuvah" in Hebrew literally means both"a return"and "an answer," and in the religious context describes a process whereby an individual Jew becomes increasingly more observant of the strictures of Jewish religion. In the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) survey of the national-religious sector, a majority of Shas voters belonging to that sector, more than double the rate among voters of any other political party, indicated that they had come closer to religion in recent years. In a 1978 survey by the Israeli Institute of Applied Social Research 68 percent of respondents said that Israeli society needed a strengthening of religious values and 51 percent stated that teshuvah was the way to accomplish that. The concern with Jewish national identity and resilience, and with ways of enhancing them, is repeated in other writing of the promoters of Jewish renewal.
