Editing Mussar (section)

== Breaking the Body ==
Unlike Mussar which advocates breaking the body through mortification and fasts, Chassidus explains that one should harness the body for avodas Hashem, as the Rambam states, "Having a healthy and whole body is from the ways of Hashem." As the Baal Shem Tov explains on the posuk "When you see the donkey of your enemy crouching under its burden and would refrain from helping it, you shall help along with him" - meaning: when you see the materiality of the body - which is your enemy, and you think you need to break it, you should know that you need to help along with it, specifically with the body.

However, Chassidus explains well that the body is "meshcha d'chivya" (the skin of the snake), and its vitality comes from the nefesh habehamis in the body (for a beinoni; for tzaddikim it's different, as their body is foreign to them, like Hillel who would say when going to the bathhouse that he was going to do chesed with the unfortunate one). Moreover, it interferes with avodas Hashem due to its coarseness and materiality. However, the ways of breaking the body in Chabad Chassidus are specifically through spiritual contemplation of human lowliness and wrongdoings, not through physical breaking of the body.