The body—and not only the body, the simple animal spirit—and the soul have the problem of coming to a mutual understanding.
The example of riding a dumb animal has been used many times.
At first there may be no communication—not enmity, but lack of understanding.
Later, rider and animal can become so very close that they begin to understand one another.
With a good horseman, the horse does not have to be beaten—they have become, so to say, almost a unit.
When the soul and the body and every part of it become a unit, then they in fact help each other.
The rider will never achieve the same thing without a horse.
The soul needs the body because the body has tremendous powers that reinforce it.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz