It states (1:8), ידע לא אשר מצרים על חדש מלך ויקם יוסף את, "A new king arose over Mitzrayim who didn't know Yosef."
The Chofetz Chaim on Teshuvah
The Chofetz Chaim zt'l taught that this is how teshuvah atones. When you do teshuvah, you aren't the same person who committed the aveirah. You are a new person because you've changed your ways.
Reb Avraham Genichovsky and the Sandek Segulah
Reb Avraham Genichovsky zt'l (Rosh Yeshiva of Tchebin) humbly shied away from being a sandek. Many of his students wanted to honor him with sandekaos, but he felt unworthy.
Shulchan Aruch (265:11) implies that being a sandek is mesugal for earning parnassah. (Tzaddikim say that if one lacks parnassah after serving as sandek, the segulah was used for other benefits. Spiritual success, for example, is also a form of wealth.)
Once, Reb Avraham needed a large sum of money and wanted the segulah of being a sandek. One of his students had a baby boy, so he informed him that if he wanted to honor him with sandekaos, he would accept it.
Less than a week later, Reb Avraham received ten thousand dollars. It was indeed mesugal for financial success.
When word got out that Reb Avraham began to accept sandekaos, he started getting many requests from people, inviting him to be sandek.
Reb Avraham didn't feel worthy of being a sandek, so he took upon himself a kabbalah so he would become more holy and fitting for this position. He took it upon himself not to read newspapers anymore. Obviously, until then, he only read Jewish newspapers, but he wanted to sanctify himself, and this was the kabbalah he took on.
He commented, "The second wealth (that he stopped reading newspapers) was greater wealth than the first wealth (ten thousand dollars)."
What Does "New" Mean?
Rashi (Shemos 1:8) writes, חדש אמר חד ,ושמואל רב גזירותיו שנתחדשו אמר וחד ,ממש, "There's a machlokes between Rav and Shmuel: One says he was a new king. The other says that [it was the same, old king, but he is called new because] he decreed new gezeiros [evil decrees against the Jewish nation].
The Toras Chaim (Eiruvin 53.) says that this machlokes results in a halachic מינא נפקא (difference) related to money matters. For example, someone pays for a new car, and the seller gives him an old, refurbished car. The buyer says, "This isn't what we agreed on. I agreed to buy a new car." The seller says, "But it's just like new."
It will depend on the two explanations of "new." If חדש מלך is literal, then when someone asks for a new car, you must sell him a new car. But if חדש מלך means renewed, then a refurbished car can also be considered a new car.
Following the view that חדש means renewed, we can explain that when one does teshuvah and changes his ways, he becomes "a new person."
