Parting From the Extra Soul
On Shabbos the Rebbe of Lublin looked like a different person, and when the day ended he would faint at the parting.
Throughout the week Rav Tzadok sat bent over his seforim, thin and hardly noticing food. Shabbos was another matter. He davened Shacharis alone at sunrise, and only for the Torah reading did he walk into the minyan held in his house, which began at nine. By then he had already learned two whole masechtos, Shabbos and Eruvin, the two that belong to the day.
Chassidim relate that on Shabbos he took on a new face. The holiness of the day shone from his skin so brightly that people who saw him hardly knew him.
Then came Havdalah. During the blessings, or soon after, he would collapse in a faint, and those around him had to pour fragrant water of the besamim over him to bring his soul back. The Sages teach that every Jew is given an extra soul on Shabbos, and that it leaves when the day ends. For most people the leaving is a quiet sadness. For Rav Tzadok it was so hard to part from the holiness of Shabbos that it took his strength.
His chassidim saw in this how close a Jew can come to Shabbos, and how real the day becomes for one who has prepared all week to receive it.
Source: Kuntres Tzidkas HaTzaddik (Machon Tiferes Radzhin, Bnei Brak, 5780), reprinting the biographical essays of Rav Isser Frankel and Rav Avraham Yitzchak Bromberg (from his series on the Rebbes of Poland).
This Friday, set aside ten minutes before candle lighting to put away your phone, tidy one corner of the house and sit quietly. Think about welcoming a guest who truly matters to you. Then, at Havdalah, linger over the besamim for a moment and notice what you feel as Shabbos leaves. Even a small sense of loss shows that Shabbos touched you, and you can build a gentle practice from that feeling in the coming week.