32. Ki Tavo 5778 -Elul: Hey! You Over THERE!

This lecture is going to explore the modern-day issue of people feeling Over THERE, away from everyone else, who are over HERE. If you don’t get what I am talking about, then G-d bless you, and this lecture will be an amazing spiritual High Holiday preparation lecture. However, if you do understand what I am talking about, this will also be a life-altering lecture. So, what am I talking about? There is a percentage of the population who feel different in a challenging way. It is as if the whole world is over HERE, and for some reason they are over THERE. This is not only about people who are noticeably quirky among people, but even those who project a very macho or sassy persona. “My insides don’t feel the way their outsides look,” is a core thought and feeling for this group of the population. Some take cover in finding other THERE’niks, while others turn to self-medicating of one of many unhealthy forms. Ultimately, the THERE’nik learns that it isn’t others with whom he doesn’t see eye-to-eye, but with himself. It is as if within himself exists a HERE, while the ‘him-him’ who dominates his thoughts and his feelings is over THERE. One of the signs of such an individual is that he is always living in his head, rather in the HERE of reality and presence. In his head movies are playing, of which he used to be the director, but is now an involuntary actor, forced to emotionally play his part. And thus, he is always over THERE in his head, in his movie, living and feeling a life of fiction. This lecture is based upon a maamor delivered by the Rebbe in 1969, exploring the month of Elul, in which G-d goes to be THERE with His people, and to reveal to them the road from THERE to HERE.