Face Your Fear: Living with Courage in an Age of Caution

by Shmuley Boteach

Book Overview

A world famous thinker, author, lecturer, and activist, whose diverse, acclaimed and immensely popular body of work covers such subjects as religion, relationships, and bravery, Boteach now turns his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312326726
• ISBN13: 9780312326722
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Much needed advice in this age of fear

Rabbi Shmuley points out the fact that we are living in the best of times these days. And yet, many of us are enslaved by fear. Contrary to popular belief, fear is not a good thing. I used to think fear kept me out of trouble, but that is not the case. Although fear probably did keep me safe in many instances, it also kept me from doing many important things. The bad things fear have caused in my life FAR outweigh the good. That isn't to say we shouldn't exercise caution. However, exercising caution shouldn't be an excuse to be fearful. So how does one overcome fear? It's not enough to just tell yourself to stop being afraid. Rabbi Shmuley presents many ideas on how to change your thinking in order to overcome fear. For example, turning the TV off is one of those great ways. Do not most of our fears come from the news? Turning off the TV may sound like torture, but watching it is of little value. For the last several years the media has done a good job of making us afraid of Y2K, terrorism, mad cow disease, kidnappers, swine flu, and I'm sure you can think of many others. The book probably could have been a little shorter, but it was still a great read. This book should probably be read more than once (if you found it helpful the first time) since so many ideas are presented.

Love Rabbi Shmuley! All of his books are wonderful, including this one!

I have read many of Rabbi Shumley's books and they are all great, including this one!

It will change the way you think and live life to the fullest!

It's a lifesaver. Mr. Shmuley Boteach has been given the gift of wisdom for him to impart these truthful observations about fear, for all of us. Fear is a basic emotional ingredient in our lives, and a useless one at that. He teaches us how to combat it. And combat it for good. God led me to buy this book, just when I Needed it Most. It's honest and very readable. Mr. Shmuley, thank you!

An excellent book on fear

I bought this book after seeing Rabbi Shmuley on his television show, which I believe airs on The Learning Channel (TLC). He artfully helps mend families who are near the breaking point. His wisdom and talent are beyond the beyonds if you ask me. The ideas in the book are enlightening/thought provoking. He mentions the idea that our greatest fear is the fear of being insignificant, which is something I had never thought about and feel is likely true. I enjoy the way the author uses wonderfully profound and inspirational quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Major concepts within each chapter are highlighted in bold. My only objection to this book is the frequent mention of political ideas/concepts. I found myself laughing a few times that the Rabbi was indeed without fear to include so many references to world politics/civics, etc. that it might be a distraction for some readers. Due to this little "flaw," my ideal rating for the book would be a "4.5" However, do not let that detract you from buying this book. It seems to be written with a lot of wisdom, experience and love. AAF

This is REAL!

The chapter that made the biggest impact on me in "Face Your Fear" as I read it was "What Stuff Are We Made Of." It especially gave me an uncanny feeling when Rabbi Boteach talked about how women sometimes fall into the trap of cheap and unsatisfying relationships (which usually culminate painfully for them) because they find themselves in dire need for male attention - even from men who would rather sleep with them than create a caring relationship. The night before I read this chapter I spoke to a friend in an Ivy League college in Boston who is trying his best to "get it on" with a girl (in his words - "any girl"). He told me that he hit rock bottom dating someone who didn't want to go "to the next step" that quickly fearing that she would get hurt again after he would use her up, to put it bluntly. I felt that the chapter perfectly mirrored this girl's situation. Rabbi Boteach explains how these women lacked a loving father in their lives and therefore wanted to compensate that with a base and uncaring boyfriend. While the fact that this girl having had her father walk out on her when she was only seven years old and she never saw him again, tugged an inner emotional chord in me that still shakes. But, in terms of broader substance, I have to thank Rabbi Boteach for teaching me that fear is something not to be proud of, but be cautious about. In fact, be deliberately aggressive to eradicate it completely. Alarmingly, it encompasses practically everything I do, from taking exams in school to interacting with people, and I never even knew that these edgy feelings are called fears. They constantly try to undermine my hard-pressed efforts and abilities to reach my potential. Instead of facing them with genuine and unswerving resolve, I tend to cop out. The first part of the book called "The Case Against Fear" categorically pinned down for me the different kinds of fears that are found not just in an individual ("me") but in a collective group or people ("us") dealing with a wide-range of existential forces that continually bombards us with fear symptoms, such as politics and corporate business. Rabbi Boteach even tackles the issue of our fear of death. Undoubtedly the strongest dose of inspiration that I got from Rabbi Boteach is from what he calls "the mother of all fears", which is, "the fear of insignificance." He says that this huge worry that's invariably locked inside our minds governs our scariest and most unshakable fears. In the second part of the book "To Conquer Fear" he tells us how to "overcome our fear" and especially the fear of us being utterly and despondently insignificance. He also debunks the various myths about the alleged positive side of fear. He says that basically we can't derive any good from fear because it's inherently bad as an element that's antithetical to love. Therefore we must strive to destroy our fears by imbibing the waters of love. But what makes this work real is the candid and the down-to-earth prose.