Source: Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah (10 chapters); Guide for the Perplexed 3:36.

The most systematic and influential treatment of Jewish atonement theology. Key doctrines: (1) Teshuvah requires recognition, remorse, cessation, and verbal confession. (2) Complete teshuvah proven when one faces the same temptation and refrains. (3) Free will is absolute: ‘Permission is granted to every person to be righteous like Moses or wicked like Jeroboam… no one forces him’ (2:2). (4) Even the gravest sinner can return: ‘He is beloved and desirable before the Creator as if he had never sinned’ (7:4). (5) The highest teshuvah is motivated by pure love of God, not fear — anticipating Kantian moral philosophy by six centuries.