Hayom Yom: Sh'vat 28

One of the Baal Shem Tov's teachings:

"When you see chamor, a donkey"1 - when you carefully examine your chomer ("materiality"), your body, you will see...

..."your enemy" - meaning, that your chomer hates your Divine soul that longs for G-dliness and the spiritual, and furthermore, you will see that it is...

..."lying under its burden" placed upon it - (the body) by G-d, namely, that it should become refined through Torah and mitzvot; but the body is lazy to fulfill them. It may then occur to you that...

..."you will refrain from helping it" - to enable it to fulfill its mission, and instead you will follow the path of mortification2 of the flesh to break down the body's crass materiality. However, not in this approach will the light of Torah reside. Rather...

..."you must aid it" - purify the body, refine it, but do not break it by mortification.