The Corporate Body

The individual body is not the essential definition of the body according to the Book dictated by the Creator, the G-d of Israel.  The Bible's definition of the body includes the individual body but is more essentially the corporate body.  When it was stated by the Creator that it was not good for Adam to be alone it was not just due to psychological reasons.  Adam was not finished.  The essential commandment of goodness, for Adam to be fruitful and multiply, was not possible for Adam alone.  An amoeba that is alone can multiply.  Adam cannot.  The Creator designed the body of Adam to be a corporate body.

When the Bible speaks of the body of the Messiah as being the bride of the Messiah it is not just using metaphorical language.  the body of the Messiah is the most literal body of all bodies.  Every other body is to some degree a metaphor in relation to that body.  Even the corporate body of the first Adam is less literal than the eternal body of the Messiah.

The Objective

The objective is to be selfless, but if you are selfless and you are alone you are no more than death and the actions that you perform can be no greater than the actions of the angel of death.  Thus, the objective is not to be selfless and alone but to be selfless and be with God and have God supply your identity to you as his gift to you. Then your actions can be actions of pure giving.  This is the objective.

The Body

As the Word of G-d became flesh and dwelt among us, the body cannot be understood as a mere garment fo the soul or spirit in a dualistic sense.  If it is to be understood as a garment or a house for the soul, then the sense in which it is to be understood must be in a non-dualistic sense, where the house or garment is itself an essential aspect of the person.  This will be seen clearly in the resurrection of the dead, where the body will be eternally perfect while the soul is still learning and growing in ever higher levels of perfection.  The present situation, where the soul is struggling to elevate the flesh into spirituality, will then, in the resurrection, be reversed and the soul will be learning from the body.  Without making reference to Yehoshua, as I have done here, Rebbe Schneerson of the cHaBaD Hassidim has taught this principle based on the text in Isaiah 1:27.

SEE my studies on this in my Evernote files here:

ציון במשפט תפדה ושבי׳ בצדקה 

"Zion shall be redeemed through justice and her captives through tzedakah."

SEE ALSO:  Anticipating the Redemption  by Menachem Mendel Schneerson  

or

http://sichosinenglish.org/books/anticipating-redemption-1/02.htm