John Carrier

First, I want to thank everyone for your kind words and wishes following my brother’s death.  At a time when I’ve seldom felt lower — Bobby was the first person I was close to who died of anything other than old age — I’ve also seldom felt more love from my friends and my community than I have this week.

Thank you.

Second, while my parents and sisters and I were attending to Bobby’s affairs (he had no spouse or heirs), we decided to start a foundation in his honor.  Now I feel compelled to act on that decision while we still have the emotional momentum of the event on our side.

I’m not asking for money.  (Not yet.)

I’m asking for information — experience, expertise, network contacts — from anyone who has any interest or experience in the following areas:

• Starting and incorporating a non-profit organization, such as a charity, foundation, or scholarship endowment.
• Working with at-risk youth, for example, teenagers with experience in the foster care or juvenille justice systems.
• Attending or working with outdoor leadership programs or wilderness survival schools.
• Fundraising, both online and IRL.

If you are interested in helping and are able to help, even if its just a few words based on your experience that will save my family from wasting scarce time or resources as we work toward making this a reality, please email me at the following address:

john (at-sign) johncarrier (dot) com

If you know of anyone with experience or interest in the areas above, please click on the “tell a friend” button below for a way to easily share this request with others in your address book (with total privacy, of course).

Thanks again for your love and support at this difficult time.

I heard a story once that when I was maybe three years old, Bobby held me by the ankles over the rail of the second-floor landing in the house where we grew up, my wavy brown hair hanging fifteen feet above the ground, my thrilled and terrified shriek filling the front hall.

When someone told him to put me down that instant, I said, “No, it’s okay.  Bobby’s making me tough.”

In truth I never knew a man with a tougher disposition, or a gentler heart.

My brother died today.  He was a good man.  I loved him.  I will miss him terribly.

A few weeks ago my wife and I took a vacation to California, and while we were in the neighborhood, we visited the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, one of the schools I am applying to (see below).  Among the many things there that made an impression on me (the gorgeous vista, the kosher chicken wings, Rabbi Dorff) was a comment I heard at least 2 people make: Rabbinical school is a humbling experience.

No matter how successful you were in your previous career, once you start R-school, you’re back to square one.  Not only are you responsible for learning a library full of primary, secondary, and n-iary texts, ranging in vintage from 3,000 years old to yesterday’s HaAretz; you are responsible for learning it in another language (at least one) that if you’re lucky, you enter the school comprehending at a third-grade level: Hebrew.

To that end, I’ve started working with a Hebrew tutor twice a week.  We’ve been using the widely recommended Ivrit min HaHatchalah (Hebrew from Scratch), level one, to start me learning modern conversational Hebrew.  Last night I also began a course of study with a friend looking at Torah (Bible) and Talmud (ancient law codes with copious commentary), and it quickly became clear that my lack of Hebrew would be a hindrance, so we added a component of learning Biblical Hebrew into the mix.

What’s the difference between Modern and Biblical Hebrew?  Modern Hebrew is a living language spoken in Israel.  Biblical Hebrew is the original language of the Torah, the constituent parts of which are between 2,000 and 4,000 years old.

Consider the difference between these two phrases, and you’ll see the range I’m grappling with:

Modern: “My name is John.  I am a student.  I want to drink juice.  Where is the bathroom?  I drank a lot of juice.”

Biblical: “And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.  And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.  Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.  And he said unto his people: ‘Behold, the people of the children of Israel are too many and too mighty for us; come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there befalleth us any war, they also join themselves unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.’ ”

I feel like I’m bungee jumping up and down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.  But of course, before I can understand medieval commentary on Ancient Near Eastern cosmogeny, I have to relearn, at age 32, how to eat, drink, and find the bathroom.

For you John Carrier completists out there, here’s a link to my new blog focusing on Judaism and contemporary Jewish issues:

Teh n00bzer Rebbe

Because when it comes to Judaism, I’m teh n00bzer.