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.
La Torá dice (Shmot 23:5): «Cuando veas el burro (jamor) de tu enemigo (sonaja) esforzándose bajo su carga, [¿acaso] evitarás ayudar[lo?] Ayudarás con él», de donde aprendemos los preceptos positivos de ayudar a descargar y cargar un animal que ande cargado con objetos de otra persona. El Talmud se encarga de desmenuzar estos versículos y darnos todos los detalles de cómo deben observarse estos preceptos. Esa es la contraparte material.
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:
«Cuando veas tu materialidad (jomer en lugar de jamor) [y pienses que] te odia (sonaja, como en el original, pero con otro contexto) esforzándose bajo su carga (es decir, que le cuesta seguir el ritmo del alma, le es difícil al cuerpo la observancia de Mitzvot en general, u observarlas con alegría y buen corazón) [¿acaso] evitarás ayudar[lo?], Ayudarás con él».
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.