Put positively, the path of death involved trusting radically in the compassion of God and letting go of the self and the world as the basis of security and focus of concern. This way was simultaneously hard and easy. It was hard especially for those who were quite secure and who measured up to the standards of culture internalized within their psyches, whether the decisive standards were wealth, status, or observance of the Torah. For them to let go of those standards and the self that met them was very difficult. Hence the way was the narrow way: “The gate is narrow and the road is hard that
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