Summary and Lessons from the Maamar
The parsha starts out by describing the laws of war, and teaches that if someone captures a woman in war, he cannot marry her unless she first converts. However, if he marries her because of her appearance, he will end up not liking her. If he marries her after she converts, and then he marries another native Jewish wife, he may come to the following dilemma: His wife that he does not like (because he married her with the wrong intentions) gives birth to a son, and then his second wife, whom he likes (because he married her for the correct intentions), gives birth to a son. He wants to give the birth-right of the double portion of inheritance to the son of his second wife, but the fact is that his hated first wife gave birth to a son first. Which son gets the birth-right of a double portion? The verse says, “And it shall be that the first son will be born to the wife he does not like, (and therefore, he must give that son the double portion of inheritance).” What is the implication that specifically the wife he does not like will give birth to his first-born son? Why does it seem that the Torah is saying that this is what should happen?
To understand this, we need to understand the difference between the animal soul and the Divine soul:
The animal soul comes from a high level, from the angels (and even higher), but it came down through many processes that conceal Hashem’s revelation from it and cause it to change its highly spiritual nature. This causes it to come into this world in a way that creates a mixture of good (holy potential) and bad (unholy desires).
The Divine soul comes to the person directly from Hashem, without changing its essential, Divine nature of connection to Hashem, like it says, “He (Hashem) breathed into man a soul of life.” This is analogous to someone blowing directly from his innermost life into something else. From the perspective of the Divine soul, it would be impossible in any way for a Jew to sin against Hashem, since his soul sees the truth of Hashem’s Oneness and Presence directly. It is only because the animal soul covers it over that a person is able to sin.
The fact that the Divine soul came into the animal soul is in order to refine it and transform its “darkness” into the Light of Divine revelation. This is the meaning of the name “יִּשְרָאֵל-Yisrael,” since the word יִּשְרָאֵל comes from the word שַר-ruler, like it says in the verse, “For you have שָרִיתָ-ruled over אֱלֹהִים-angels and אֲנָשִים-people and prevailed.” The term “אֱלֹהִים-angels” here, is referring also to the bad feelings and character traits of the animal soul, and the term אֲנָשִים-people is also referring to the bad thoughts of the animal soul. Thus, the verse is saying that through prayer, a Jew’s Divine soul has the power to overcome and rule the thoughts and feelings of the animal soul and to transform them to holiness.
If the animal soul was on a high spiritual level originally, why did Hashem send him down and make him un-spiritual so that the Divine soul would need to come into him and elevate him? The answer to this will be understood by first explaining the concept of prayer, which is described in the Zohar as a “battle.”
The first part of the “battle” is Pesukei Dezimra, where a Jew thinks deeply about the greatness of Hashem and how He creates and gives life to everything. This creates a feeling of love for Hashem, and a certain amount of repulsion to any unholiness that opposes Hashem.
However, it does not completely remove the animal soul’s desire for unholiness, since the person still feels that s/he still exists and has the right to want things, it is just that Hashem is much greater and it makes sense to make Hashem’s desires a higher priority than one’s own desires. This does not remove the possibility of other desires. But, when a Jew says Krias Shema and contemplates Hashem’s True Oneness and how He is the only real existence at all, and all unholiness and ego is totally fake and the opposite of reality, this will allow one to have a deep love for Hashem that will totally negate any room for unholiness and ego.
Nowadays, we also have the 18 blessings of Shemona Esrai, so that the deep connection to Hashem’s Oneness that we reveal through contemplation in Shema should be fully revealed in our animal soul. This is because the idea of bracha-blessing is to draw down and reveal Hashem to a level we can relate to directly.
Now, we can answer the question asked at the beginning of the maamar: Because the animal soul is rooted in the World of Tohu, where the Light is unlimited, when we refine the animal soul and bring it to really love Hashem (through Pesukei Dezimra, Shema, and Shemona Esrai), this connects our Divine soul to a love of Hashem from Tohu that it didn’t have in its source in Atzilus (Tikkun). This is the meaning of “the first-born son” - the Light and love of Tohu - comes to us through transforming the once “hated” animal soul, by getting the animal soul to hate unholiness through teaching him to love Hashem.
