Let’s Get It Right This Year – Not "New", But "Nu"

Written by the Rebbe, Harav Michel Twerski, shlit”a

The Torah, assuredly, teaches us to treasure the “old.” We are exhorted to respect and care for elderly parents, seek counsel of the elders, and treat reverently the faded parchment of our once usable torah scrolls. Our ancient Torah practices, rites and rituals, are never to be bartered, diluted, compromised or sacrificed in deference to anything new, no matter how promising. The “new” year consequently is most decisively not an invitation to jettison the familiar and the venerable, or to discredit the old. As a matter of fact, “Rosh Hashanah” doesn’t even mean “New” year! Rather, it translates as the “head”-of-the-year.
As the “Rosh”—the “head”—of the year, the title of this season directs us to think of time as an organic entity. Seconds and minutes are not disparate and distinct particles on the spectrum of time, connected by some arbitrary common denominator. Time comes to us, shaped by the Supreme Being, as a body—a configuration—a living being, with a head, a heart, a torso, and limbs. Just as a baby comes into the world head-first, so does the year greet us head-first, a bright, innocent creature to be nurtured and loved, protected and cherished, shaped and directed. What will this “time” – infant grow up to be? Clearly, what we make of it! Neglect and ignorance will mold a child of misfortune; attention and wisdom, a masterpiece of great beauty and achievement. Rosh Hashanah calls upon us all to become parents, to face the awesome challenge of shaping yet another “life” in time. This Rosh Hashanah presents us with a unique opportunity to craft a new year, without repeating past mistakes or perpetuating counter-productive patterns. G-d invests us with the trust, that we can rise above habituation and prejudice, self-deception and half-truths to embrace this “new” year with the accumulated wisdom of generations past, and the full benefit of our years, to parent progeny of brilliance and genuine substance. So, let us be correct and precise about all this. None of this happy “new” year stuff, rather a good, nachas-filled and successful year to all.