This is my favorite pshat in the whole world. I've been saving it up for a while. It has brought me through the hardest of times and allowed me to continue to believe in myself after any time I fall. I hope it serves you well.

Elisha ben Avuya was a Tana who visited the heavenly Pardes (ein sham) and as a result lost his faith in Hashem. Once he went off the derech, was refered to as 'Acher'

The gemarah relates how his talmid, R. Meir, constantly tried to bring his Rebbe back on the derech. Finnally after much attempt, Alisha ben Avuya related his story to his talmid (R. Meir):

"One day when I was walking past the churban, I heard a bas kol (heavenly voice) go out and proclaim, 'Everyone can do teshuva except for Acher' From then on, I understood that returning back to H' was impossible."


So heres the famous question:
[i]How is it possible that Alisha couldn't do teshuva? Everyone can do teshuva!! (kal vachomer one of the greatest tanaaim to ever live....)

So R. Ahron Solevetchik answers: Elisha ben Avuya missed the whole message. OF COURSE HE COULD DO TESHUVA!!!! You know who couldn't do teshuva? Acher!!! Acher, Elisha B. Avuya's false self-perception- ie. the Y"H. He can never do teshuva!!  

What the Y"h had done (and does to all of us) is that it deceives us into believing we are someone we are not. Rather than allowing a person to see his true good nature, the Y"h deceives a person into believing that he is someone else. He tricks us into forgetting who we really are. He turns ME into us a "failure," a "lost cause," an Acher if you will.

What the bas kol was really telling Alisha was that he had to leave behind his 2nd self, his fake self-perception, because that "identity" had no share in ever being close to H'.

So what we should all know is that we are made of two parts...........
Ourselves............ and your very own "sinning soul."

[ The Gra writes that this was a power given to the Y"h, to make a person believe  that he wants what he does not want and desire what he logically knows he does not desire.R. Akiva Tatz beautifully (and simply) proves this idea, that from the sin of Adam Harishon, the Y"H was given the ability to deceive a person into thinking the Y"H is himself and its desires one's own. All one must do is listen to the voice inside his own head and he will know exactly what I mean.
       I ask you who is speaking in this case: "I would like that piece of cake. I would like to have/look at X,Y and Z. I, I, I."  Vs. "You should go learn now. You should go daven now. You should really share the cake... You, You, You." Many of us in this generation are on such a level that our own true voice, our deep desires for our goals, for Truth, for closeness to H' can only be heard as distant voices of a stranger (if we are lucky enough to hear it at all).]

May each and every one of us be zoche to realize that I am ME..... and he/that is someone else!

May we all live with this message on a daily basis and taste the freedom that comes with rediscovering our own true identities!!