ernal worlds have been described by Hebrew texts as the true enlightenment or rebirth, or by the Hebrew name teshuva, meaning both answer and return. The Jewish convert is known by the name baal teshuva or the person who has answered the inner appeal and who has truly returned to the one true way of being (Cohen, et.al., 1987).
Judaic thought on the subject holds that this total conversion is a conversion from the outside to the center, and is one of the most basic choices available in life. The Hebrew Scriptures see this to have universal human applicability, and represent it by Israel's return as a nation or culture with a relationship to God. Since Jews believe that all humans are called upon to return to God, it naturally follows that although the conversion was preached initially as an affair between God and the Hebrew peoples, it can be extrapolated to mean the necessary affair between humans and the Creator established within a basal relationship through the vehicle of the Judaic faith (Rosenthal, 1986, pp. 26 54, passim).
For the Jew, conversion is likened within the moral story of Noah. The Scriptures present the Mosaic covenant as a convent within the universal covenant with Adam and Noah, and Judaism is consequently committed to the conversion of man to God, as well as the conversion of Jews and others to the one true faith of Jewishness. However, there is yet another parabalic meaning that may be attached to the various belief systems surrounding Judaic conversion. In contemporary Jewish thought, this meaning is the change of religion most commonly associated with the concept of the convert and conversion. Though the two meanings are not mutually exclusive, a specific conversion to Judaism is the final goal that Jewish people see as representative for humankind. Historical Judaism, however, placed conversion more in line with free religious association, and thus more of a choice within the fabric of free wil...