While seated at the bedside of Rabbi Nachman, Rava saw him lapsing into the sleep of death. Yet Rabbi Nachman managed
to say to Rava, “Tell the angel of death not to torment me.”
Rava replied, “But are you not important enough [to tell him yourself]?”
Rabbi Nachman: “Who is sufficiently important, esteemed, or vigorous enough?”
Then Rava implored R. Nahman, “Show yourself to me [in a dream].”
When he did show himself [after he died], Rava asked him, “Did you suffer any pain?”
He replied, “As little as taking a hair from milk. Still, if the Holy One were to say to me, ‘Go back to
that world,’ I would not consent, the fear of death being so great.”
