This week's section, Mishpatim (rules), contains fifty-three precepts, many of which occupy only a few verses of the Written Torah and several pages of the Oral Torah. While many of these precepts are not applied today, due to the lack of a higher court (Sanhedrin), a Temple in Jerusalem, or other circumstances, it is nevertheless understood that all mitzvot have an eternal spiritual counterpart; that is, they apply and can be learned from even when the material and practical counterpart cannot be carried out.
The Torah states (Exodus 23:5): "When you see your enemy's donkey straining under its load, shall you refrain from helping it? You shall help with it." From this, we learn the positive commandments of assisting in unloading and loading an animal carrying another person's belongings. The Talmud elaborates on these verses and provides detailed instructions on how these commandments should be observed. This is the practical application.
The spiritual (and eternal) counterpart of this verse gives us an idea of the relationship between body and soul in Judaism.
In general, there are three ways to view this relationship:
1) The body is something contemptible, worldly, and ordinary; therefore, it must be forced and broken so that the soul, the positive part of the person, may flourish. That is the wisdom of Musar.
2) The soul must be elevated and strengthened; that is, the superiority of form over matter must be emphasized, without giving any importance whatsoever to what happens to the body. This is the wisdom of the Hakirá.
3) The body and soul are a unified whole through which one achieves the purpose of life; that is, each has its own virtues, and it is through the combination, refinement, and elevation of both that Man fulfills his reason for being. This is the wisdom of Hasidism.
In light of this brief explanation of the idea of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic Movement, explained our verse as follows:
""When you see your materiality (chomer instead of jamor) [and think that] it hates you (rattle, as in the original, but with a different context) struggling under its burden (i.e., it struggles to keep up with the soul, it is difficult for the body to observe Mitzvot in general, or to observe them with joy and a good heart) [will you] avoid helping [it?], You will help with it.".
The idea is that the person is not required to break their body, but rather to refine it and use it in service to God. It should help them to be on par with the soul and be the appropriate conduit through which the soul reveals God on Earth.
And how do you help the body? By studying Torah. For several reasons, but the simplest is because Torah is the tool through which the soul can explain to the body the goodness of Torah and Mitzvot and of God in general.