water in the world would not make the immersion in the mikveh effective. Similarly, until a person stopped the sinful behavior, the act of confessing was, by itself, meaningless. Two verses from the Bible are brought to reinforce the dual aspect of true repentance. In the first one, from Proverbs, the Rabbis note that a person will find mercy (in other words, receive God’s forgiveness) by both “confessing” sins and “giving them up,” giving back the stolen property. Both acts—admitting one’s errors