rend your heart, and not your garments,
And turn unto the Lord your God;
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Long-suffering, and abundant in mercy,
And repenteth Him of the evil."(782)

This prophetic view, which demands contrition and craving for God instead
of external modes of atonement, is expressed in the penitential Psalms as
well,(783) especially in Psalm LI. The idea is expanded further in the
parable of the prophet Jonah, which conveys the lesson that even a heathen
nation like the people of Nineveh can avert the impending judgment of God
by true repentance.(784) From this point of view the whole conception took
on a larger aspect, and the entire history of mankind was seen in a new
light. The Jewish sages realized that God punishes man only when the
expected change of mind and heart fails to come.(785)

5. The Jewish plan of divine salvation presents a striking contrast to
that of the Church, for it is built upon the presumption that all sinners
can find their way back to God and godliness, if they but earnestly so
desire. Even before God created the world, He determined to offer man the
possibility of _Teshubah_, so that, in the midst of the continual struggle
with the allurements of the senses, the repentant sinner can ever change
heart and mind and return to God.(786) Without such a possibility the
world of man could not endure; thus, because no man can stand before the
divine tribunal of stern justice, the paternal arm of a merciful God is
extended to receive the penitent. This sublime truth is constantly
reiterated in the Talmud and in the liturgy, especially of the great Day
of Atonement.(787) Not only does God's long-suffering give the sinner time
to repent; His paternal love urges him to return. Thus the Haggadists
purposely represent almost all the sinners mentioned in the Bible as
models of sincere repentance. First of all comes King David, who is
considered such a pattern of repentance, as the author of the fifty-first
Psalm, that he would not have been allowed to sin so grievously, if he had
not been providentially appointed as the shining example of the penitent's
return to God.(788) Then there is King Manasseh, the most wicked among all
the kings of Judah and Israel, who had committed the most abominable sins
of idolatrous worship. Referring to the story told of him in Chronicles,
it is said that God responded to his tearful prayers and incessant
supplications by opening a ri