The root of the word “Teshuvah” is “shuv” to return.  What are you returning to?  You are returning to your essence, to your pristine core, to your unsullied soul.    Christianity believes in “original sin” and how people are tainted and impure.  But that is not so with Judaism.  In Judaism, we believe that each one of us is holy and pure, and when we do teshuva, we return to the purity, to the essence and holiness of who we really are.  ~ R’ Yitzchok Fingerer