While seated at the bedside of Rabbi Nahman, Rava saw him slipping into death.
Said Rabbi Nahman to Rava, "Tell the Angel of Death not to torture me."
Rava replied, "You are a man of great honor. You may speak directly to him."
Nahman responded, "Who is honored, who is distinguished, who is singled out before the Angel of Death?"
As Nahman lay dying, Rava said to him, "Show yourself to me [after you die]."
Nahman showed himself in a dream and Rava asked him, "Did you suffer much pain?"
Rabbi Nahman answered, "It was as easy a taking a hair from a pitcher of milk. But were God to say to me, 'Go back to the world as you were before,' I would not want to go. For fear of death is so great there." -Mo'ed Katan 28a
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