The distinguished thinker and philanthropist Yosef Wosk discusses his memoir Naked in a Pyramid: Travels & Observations (Anvil Press, 2023), with Joseph Planta.

Naked in a Pyramid: Travels & Observations by Yosef Wosk (Anvil Press, 2023). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Naked in a Pyramid

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Yosef Wosk joins me now. He has been described as somebody who frequently helps others but remains a stranger. In a new memoir, Naked in a Pyramid: Travels & Observations we catch glimpses of the man, his thoughts, and his many adventures around the world. The title of the book describes an episode when the day after Wosk climbed the Great Pyramid of Giza at midnight, he returned alone to meditate, spoiler alert: en déshabillé. We read his inner most thoughts as he travels to the South Pole, and the North Pole. We follow his journeys of thought and higher learning. He is an ordained rabbi, who holds Ph.Ds in Religion & Literature (Boston University), as well as in Psychology, and masters degrees in Education (Yeshiva University), and Theology (Harvard). He writes generously of his teachers and the influence that great thinkers and artists have had on his life, such as Leonard Cohen, Elie Wiesel, and many others who he’s learned from in various fields of thought and endeavour. The book is meditative as well as generously allows for the reader to wander through their own thoughts, to one’s own travels, experiences, and remember their own teachers. Yosef, who joined me earlier this week, writes of his family, their arrival to Canada, their endeavours in the community as well as their philanthropy. I’ll ask about the roots of his and his family’s generosity, as well as the existential questions one might have about life and death itself, themes that Yosef thoughtfully and fascinatingly discusses in the book. Yosef Wosk is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of British Columbia, and a recipient of the City of Vancouver’s Freedom of the City. He has founded hundreds of libraries on all seven continents, supported museums worldwide, and endowed Vancouver’s Poet Laureate program, among many other philatrophic endeavours. You can read more at his website www.yosefwosk.org. This new book is published by Anvil Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Yosef Wosk; Dr. Wosk, good morning.

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