Once, when the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe was taking a walk with his father on the beaches of France, his father recounted the special quality of a person who contemplates Chassidic concepts prior to prayer and while enveloped in talis and tefilin.
1) It refines the body. It develops the heart and mind to be a proper receptacle for the Divine Presence.
2) It chases away the animalistic soul.
3) It cleanses the natural soul—the natural drives of the person.
4) It subjugates the intellectual soul for a G-dly purpose.
5) It illuminates the world. “When a Jew contemplates Chassidus, while enwrapped in talis and tefilin before prayer, the world becomes illuminated.”
6) He draws down revealed G-dliness in all worlds—from the highest of levels until the lowest.
7) He illuminates all the levels of his soul: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida.
8) He transforms his essential character traits.
(Igros Kodesh of the Previous Rebbe, Volume 3, pg. 293.)
