So What Else is New?

Basically, this Rosh Hashanah custom requires only one new fruit. But the newest thing is to offer a selection of several new fruits, and some Holiday tables are adorned with a full cornucopia of exotic fruits.

So let us explore a new venue that will allow us to enjoy new insights without running up an expensive fruit bill. For even as we enjoy the array of papayas, caranuba and other fruit we hardly knew, our main High Holiday focus is not on new fruit, but on a new You.

Rosh Hashanah really expects us to turn over a new leaf. The Shofar calls for an inner renewal, and in this regard, no news is not good news.

The quest for newness is as old as mankind, but people today are constantly snooping around for a new this and a new that, they don't realize that what's new now is old tomorrow. You don't have to be an ingenious Newton to know that 'New' is by its very definition, fleeting and temporary.

The term 'New' can be misleading, with places like Newport News, Nanuet, New York and Newark, New Jersey promoting themselves as "new" when they're really old as the hills. And can you believe that numismatists specialize in ancient coins?

Some humbly disguise themselves as 'old wine in new bottles' (Avot 4), while others resort to innuendo to hide their real age, like old ragged shmattes pretending to be next-to new!

Actually, we have more news on this page than the New York Times with all its minutiae and up-to-the-minute reporting!

Unfortunately, people today suffer from a serious newrosis, dumping good old values for tenuous fads that don't continue. Newer isn't always better.

Indeed, Coke once tried to be new, lost revenue, and had to revert back to the old classic. Indeed, most of today's newfangled gizmos come with built-in obsolescence, and entre-nous, even a brand-new car can become a major newsance. Let us therefore search for something that doesn't sparkle only in the showroom on the first day, and find a genuine new that enjoys long lasting tenure after the initial novelty wears off.

What is truly perpetually new is our timeless Torah; 'always new as the day it was given.' Take for example this beautiful interpretation from an old manuscript by the great Chasidic masters, the Besht and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Chabad. It is   as new and relevant today as when they taught it over 200 years ago:

"King David states: "Tik'u BaChodesh Shofar " (Psalms 81) Literally, this passage simply tells us to blow the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah, the date of which coincides with the beginning of the New Moon.

But the Hebrew word Chodesh also means 'new,' giving this verse a whole new meaning:

"Let the Shofar sound blow out the old blasé, rote and routine, and infuse us with a new dynamic spirit throughout the year."

An annual 'New Year' greeting that just keeps repeating itself year after year becomes an old cliché.   'New' alone isn't enough; let's try to be 'New and Improved!'

Instead of just changing our calendars, let us change ourselves, our deeds and our attitudes. And rather than continue insinuating nuances like a nudnik, let us return to 'Avinu Malkenu' Our Father, Our King.

May we soon merit to hear the great Shofar heralding the good news of the Final Redemption and Moshiach's long awaited arrival. This will usher in a new era of universal peace, prosperity and spiritual harmony, when 'G‑d will renew our days as once before' (Lam.5).