It was in this sense that Hillel the Elder would say to his disciples when he went to eat that he was going to do a favor to the “lowly and poor creature,” meaning his body. He regarded his body as a foreign thing and therefore used this expression—that he was doing it a favor by giving it food. For he himself was nothing other than the divine soul. It alone animated his body and flesh, inasmuch as in tzaddikim the evil that was in the vital soul pervading their blood and flesh has been transformed into good and completely absorbed into the holiness of the divine soul, and thus, the divine soul is the man himself.
וּכְמַאֲמַר הִלֵּל הַזָּקֵן לְתַלְמִידָיו כְּשֶׁהָיָה הוֹלֵךְ לֶאֱכוֹל, הָיָה אוֹמֵר, שֶׁהוּא הוֹלֵךְ לִגְמוֹל חֶסֶד עִם הָעֲלוּבָה וַעֲנִיָּה – הוּא גוּפוֹ, כִּי כְּמוֹ זָר נֶחְשַׁב אֶצְלוֹ, וְלָכֵן אָמַר, שֶׁהוּא גּוֹמֵל חֶסֶד עִמּוֹ בְּמַה שֶּׁמַּאֲכִילוֹ, כִּי הוּא עַצְמוֹ אֵינוֹ רַק נֶפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית לְבַד, כִּי הִיא לְבַדָּהּ מְחַיָּה גּוּפוֹ וּבְשָׂרוֹ, שֶׁהָרָע שֶׁהָיָה בַּנֶּפֶשׁ הַחִיּוּנִית הַמְלוּבֶּשֶׁת בְּדָמוֹ וּבְשָׂרוֹ – נִתְהַפֵּךְ לְטוֹב, וְנִכְלַל בִּקְדוּשַּׁת נֶפֶשׁ הָאֱלֹהִית מַמָּשׁ, בַּצַּדִּיקִים.
With a beinoni, however, since the substance and essence of the vitalizing animal soul (stemming from the sitra achara), which pervades his blood and flesh, has not been transformed into good, it indeed constitutes the man himself, and therefore, by crushing his own spirit, the beinoni actually crushes the sitra achara.
אֲבָל בַּבֵּינוֹנִי, מֵאַחַר שֶׁמַּהוּתָהּ וְעַצְמוּתָהּ שֶׁל נֶפֶשׁ הַחִיּוּנִית הַבַּהֲמִית שֶׁמִּסִּטְרָא אָחֳרָא, הַמְלוּבֶּשֶׁת בְּדָמוֹ וּבְשָׂרוֹ, לֹא נֶהְפַּךְ לְטוֹב – הֲרֵי הִיא הִיא הָאָדָם עַצְמוֹ.