In Hope, Not Fear Benjamin Blech helps readers approach the end of life with calm. More than six years ago Blech was diagnosed with a fatal illness and given six months to live. Over the course of his career Rabbi Blech had counseled hundreds of people through the losses of loved ones and their own end of life, but when confronted with his own unexpected diagnosis he struggled with mortality in a new way. This personal and heartfelt book shares the answers people grappling with the end of life want to know—from what happens when we die to how we can live fully in the meantime. Drawing insights from many religious traditions as well as near death experiences, Hope, Not Fear shares the wisdom and comfort we all need to view death in an entirely new light.

"While Blech’s book is uplifting and life-affirming, he does not flinch from asking (and answering) the hardest questions of all." - Jewish Journal

"At 139 pages, without footnotes but with seven additional pages of suggested contemporary readings. . . this slender but splendid book is conversational, an introduction to the subject for the ignorant (which is almost all of us) . . . the 85-year-old Rabbi Blech writes with the excitement of a bling person suddenly able to see the aurora borealis. On every other page, it seems, he discovers Jewish ideas about death that are ‘fascinating,’ ‘remarkable.’" - New York Jewish Week