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In light of this, as long as our soul is still in us, we should quickly hasten to set our course toward the good. However, there is an obstacle blocking the road to us.15Compare Numbers 22:32. We do not tremble at the day of death, even if we pay lip service to it. As our Rabbis, of blessed memory, say (Shabbat 31b): “Lest you think it is a matter of their [evil men] forgetting [the day of death]...”16The wicked have not forgotten the day of death; they know their end will come yet they stay on their evil course. Even if our eyes see the death of a person just like us, it does not embolden our souls to return to our Creator with a full heart – notwithstanding that in the end we will come before Him for judgment and He will contend with us on all our evil activities. This [indifference to our death] is the opposite of Scripture’s statement (Eccl. 7:2): “It is better to go to a house of mourning than go to a house of festivity, for this death is the end of every man and the one who lives should take it to heart.”This is only because our many sins have dulled our heart and turned it into stone. As our Sages, of blessed memory, expound (Yoma 39a), on the verse (Lev. 11:43): “‘Velo tit’amu vahem, venitmeitem bam’;17“You shall not make yourselves unclean with them and thus become unclean.” do not read venitmeitem [you shall become unclean], but venitamtem [you shall become dulled]....” Therefore, even our sins are hidden from us and we do not feel them readily. As our Rabbis, of blessed memory, say (Kiddushin 40a): “Once a person does a sin and then repeats it…it becomes [in his mind] as if [the act is] permitted.” Yet these bad acts beset us on the day of judgment. As our Rabbis, of blessed memory, say (Avoda Zara 18a): “Sins that a person tramples underfoot...beset him [on the day of judgment]....” So have we lost hope,18See Ezekiel 37:11. God forbid? Is there no healing for us,19Compare Jeremiah 30:13. God forbid?