Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ralph Benmergui: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1872

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

In this 1872nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Ralph Benmergui about life, Passover, geopolitics, Ross Porter, Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui, Mike Bullard, and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Actually, I said here we go like I was ready to go, but I don't know. I need to create a new file. This will take 10 seconds here. You're off your game. Well, you're 10 minutes early. Oh, that's my fault. I see. Go back into traffic, well?

As opposed to being punctual. No, I'm a problem. I thought David was you, so that's early. I thought you were. Okay, so we're fine. I'm nothing, if not adaptable here. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Nothing comes from nothing. Okay. All right, Mr. Ben Murgie, I am recording in five, four, three. So, there's this old lady in her grandchild, and they're at the beach, and a huge wave comes in.

The kid's sitting right at the water's edge there, and the wave just picks them up and takes them out to sea. And the old boobie is like, oh, my God, what just happened? I, oh, my God! She's freaking out. She's running up and down the beach. She looks up into the sky where she believes there's a deity and says, God, I'll do anything.

I'll go kosher. I'll go to synagogue every Saturday. I'll do whatever I need to do. Just bring him back, please. And then a big wave comes in the crest of the wave, his little child and it's just dropped right there on the beach perfectly. She sees him, she runs over, and she looks up, and she says, he had a hat.

Very good. That's my rabbi. Welcome to episode 1,872, 1872. You were around back then, right, Ralph? Yes. An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakes beer.com for free. local home delivery in the GTA.

Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palma Pasta.com for more. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mikea Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.c.c.a.commiting to our planet's

future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, returning to Toronto Mike, it is my rabbi, but not

that kind of rabbi. It's Ralph Ben Mergi. Ralph, how are you my rabbi? I'm good. I'm good. It's, uh, tomorrow is a Jewish Christmas. Happy Passover. Indeed. Passover is the one where everybody is compelled to be together in family, like in the Christian world, where Christmas. I don't know about Easter. Easter,

for some people, not everybody. But Passover is you're supposed to hang out with everybody. These days, though, it's tricky. Why is it tricky? Well, it's tricky because there's a general amount of confusion as to what Jewishness is about. There's kind of a thing about Judaism and Israelism, where there's a lot of energy that goes into the state of Israel, but more and more, there's not that much energy going into Jewish spirituality. But that's why I took on the job of running Aleph, Canada. because it's a Jewish renewal movement.

It's kind of a new slash old way of doing Judaism. And it incorporates mystical aspects. It incorporates eastern aspects. And it kind of is an attempt to renew the pursuit of spiritual life as opposed to political or religious life as a Jew. So now when people sit around the table, nobody knows where everybody else stands about Israel. Nobody knows what, you know, there's anti-Semitism, there's, what is Zionism?

I saw an interesting thing in the Hamilton Jewish News, which came to my door, and the publisher of that, the editor of that, Wendy Schachter, should put a really nice piece about a guy who is really, an Israeli, who's really into civic Zionism. So his thing about it is that it's about the equality of everyone within the state of Israel. because for many people in the state of Israel, there's a two-tier system of care, of education, of infrastructure, of all those things. So he's really into everybody who's here

should be equal in their rights. So all of that, and then we're supposed to serve this meal and have a satyr and eat matzo and macaroons and matzo ball soup. I'm, as you know, not an Ashkenazi Jew, a fiddler on the roof chew, as I call him. I'm a Sephardic Jew, so we have different traditions. We sing differently.

There's a song called Daiyanu, which is supposed to mean that would have been enough. If you'd only given us that, that would have been enough. So the way the Ashkenazim do it is kind of a German nursery rhyme. Elu, Elu, Natanlanu at Hatara, Natanlanu at Hatorra. Daiyneu, Daiyenu. that goes on like that. Ours is, I luna tanlano

et at a tora dae'enu. Ilunatlanu et at a tora velonatlanu et mamona daeanu. So we're kind of like the R&B of Passover. And we get to eat legumes, which really freaks out the Ashkenazis, but now they're actually starting to do it

because, you know, come to the dark side. Okay, a lot there to unpack, but I want to be, Before we go any further, though, I need to address. Yes. I was going to say there's a gorilla and I'm going to undress. You don't mind, right?

Well, you've done it before. But there is someone else in the room with us, and I just want to, like, give this a little context and explain myself here. So I have made a mistake. It was made once before, but it wasn't my fault last time. This time, I do believe it is fully my fault, but I actually booked two guests for 11 a.m. on this March 31st. Wow, wow, man.

Wow. And I, you know, I joke earlier. I know you're big on blame. Well, I'm blaming myself. Right, I know. That's why it's so interesting. I am fully accountable for this error. But I have long been promoting that, because in my calendar, it had 11 a.m.

Ralph Ben Mergie, and I've been telling anyone who will listen, Ralph's back on the show Tuesday morning. I'm all set for you. But I absolutely, I want to introduce this gentleman because we are going to record after we say goodbye, Ralph. this gentleman has kindly said he can hang out with me all afternoon, and we're going to record right after our episode. But welcome to the stage, David Eisenstadt. David, David, David.

Oh, my goodness. Who would have thought I would be backing up Ralph Ben Mergie? Is this a dream come true, David? On the true, on a mic. Well, it's perhaps a pre-passover miracle. It's a miracle. Well, that was the idea. So this was my idea.

I remember having this conversation. I don't know how it didn't get into my calendar. That was my error. But telling David, because David wrote, you wrote many books, very interesting books about, I would summarize them as people you don't know are Jewish, but are Jewish. Is that a fair?

People in music. But sometimes it's music, but it's not always music, is it? No, no, it's all music. All music. My apologies. But I know this better than you do? I do have 10 artists we're going to dive into on his episode, not on yours, Ralph.

That's big of you. Unless you're down. I'm most appreciative of that, too. Even though I'm sitting here for twice a time. I said, let's celebrate Passover. So I'm glad Ralph that you're talking about Passover, because I said, let's have a Passover special where you, David, long overdue your visit.

You know, we've worked together for many years. You, I'm going to tell the world right now, and then I'm going to save the rest for your episode, but you introduced me to the great man that is Nick Iienes. Yes, that's true. And he's quite a great. fellow. Quite a character and I like him very much. I got a gig with him on Thursday night, which I'm going to promote right now because he's a sponsor and then it's all Ralph the rest of the way. But I want to tell the listenership real quick. Nick Iienes is hosting a fundraiser for mayoral candidate Brad Bradford on Thursday evening. And I am letting you know if you're interested in attending Nick Ieemes, you can find him. He's easy to find from Fusion Corp. You can find him and you can find him. And you can, can purchase tickets online for this fundraiser on April 2nd.

But David, your mic is going to be open for this whole chat. And if you want to speak into the mic, you're welcome to. But you and I are going to get into it in the next episode, which I look at the numbering will be episode 1,873. Sounds like a plan. And I'm sorry for screwing up. I am only human. You're sorry.

Is there a lot of repentance for Passover? No. Not really. It's not, it's one of the, it's a freedom issue. Yeah, exactly. There's no flailing, there's no wailing. Well, there is, but it's wailing, yeah. At the oddest places, I might add.

Well, I'm repenting. I was raised Catholics. Yeah, yeah, repent, no, we do that in the fall. Okay, well, let me know, you can both come back in the fall. Okay, how is the hammer treating you? Are you still without regrets on the big move from Toronto to Hamilton? Well, you know, it's an interesting thing. because my youngest is now got one year left of high school.

My oldest is turning 40 in June. So that'll tell you the range. But my youngest has one year left and then who knows what we'll do. But I find like, you know, I've been in Hamilton now for June. It'll be 11 years. And like some of my other Toronto exiles, we find that everyone's, at all we miss Toronto and then we go to Toronto and then we realize Toronto wasn't built for three million people so it's crazy and the joke is Toronto is an hour away from Toronto

so that part and you know in the parking and everything it just gets a little nuts if I did go back to Toronto I'd probably want to live in the beach oh yeah because we love being near the water and it'd be great but I'm near the water thank you for I'm on the other side of the city. I'm just saying the water extends. Yes, I'm aware. There's a boardwalk at the beaches. You know, defensive I got that I'm like,

there's a beach near me. I have water. There's water in the house. You know, it's funny, we had Israeli friends about three years ago came over in the summer and we were driving from here to Ottawa to hang out with my brother. And I said to her, to Sharon,

our friend, I said, so what do you think of Canada? like what are your impressions so far? And the first thing she said was, there's so much water because in Israel there's not so much water, right? And she was just amazed

how we take it for granted, that we're on Lake Ontario and then we can go up to Huron and we can go to Simco, what we're going to do. So anyways, the answer to the question is Hamilton is treating me well. I just found a wonderful jam for my drumming at the cotton factory. there's a wonderful gentleman who's a tablo player

Perjeepe and he has all kinds of percussion instruments but people come in playing guitar, play bass, play drums, I do hand drums, Jambay and Dumbach and Cajon which is a box that you play with snare chains

in it. And it's, I've realized that drumming is my form of prayer. I have it in my studio. have it at the Cotton Factory, but it's just the most wonderful thing for me. Because I don't, well, my version of what I do, my spirituality is really not grounded in this idea that there's a God and that God is a noun, you know, a guy with a beard and a naughty and nice list.

I never got into it. There's a joke. another one. I'm writing these down because I'm headlining at the Elma combo in May. You're a super kill. This one will get them. I'm going to take this one. No, I don't want to tell the job.

Why not? I don't know. You can't set up. I don't think you can do that. What do you mean you don't think I can do that? I don't think you can say, I'm going to tell a joke instead, you know, go into it and change your mind. Like you owe us a joke as far as I'm concerned. Maybe later.

And he needs copy. and he's writing it down, which is not fair. Right, I got to fill up like 90 minutes on May 20 first. No, no, I'm not going to tell the joke. I'm not going to tell the joke. But is that because it's tasteless or you don't think it's funny? It just left me. Maybe later.

Okay, I'll tell it. Fine. Thank you. So there's a rabbi in his study at the synagogue, and there's a, one of his students is in the sanctuary. The student goes running into his office and says, rabbi, there's mice in the sanctuary. And the rabbi says, don't worry about it, it's no big deal.

What do you mean no big deal? Like, it's going to eat the Torah. It's made out of parchment paper. It's going to eat the Torah. You've got to do something like, okay, take it easy. I want you to go back out there, fine little yarmulkas, little keep us, put them on their heads, give them a bar mitzah,

and you'll never see them again. I get it. And now you know the rest of the story. Yeah, I don't know if that will work with me delivering that one at the end. I have to have the workshop it a bit. Okay. So I'm looking at you now, Ralph Ben-Murgy. I consider you a dear friend. We've had

double dates together. You look fit to me. I'm just checking like I'm eyeballing you. You look trim, but you look healthy. How is your health? My health is fine. Tell my wife that. Well, I'm going right now and texting her. She's a lot younger than me, so she just goes...

Yeah, she's my age. That's how young is. Yeah, she's on death watch, really. If I go, oh, my knee, she says, you see? We can't go anywhere. I'm just like, well, it's just my knee. I just a little twinge in my knee. What do you want? So, yeah, tell her.

Is it like 20 years? What kind of age difference are we talking about? 16. Yeah, I aged you up there. Yeah, thanks, man. Well, I know. She's beautiful. Like I said, you're punching, brother.

You're punching. And smart. Smart, beautiful, wise. Here's her best thing she's taught me recently. She's a psychotherapist. This is the best thing she's taught me. when you're dealing with people and dialogue, especially around hard conversations,

connect, don't correct. Right? Because what we do, so if David and I have different opinions about Israel, or Palestinians or whatever, he'll pull out his facts. I'll pull out my facts. He'll pull out his facts. I'll pull out his fact. I'll pull out my facts.

He'll be waiting his turn to correct me. I'll be waiting my turn to correct him. Nothing gets done. Nobody wins. But if I actually was genuinely curious, and he said, I believe, blah, blah, blah, blah, instead of me going, well, no, I mean, no, I mean, that's just not, instead of all that nonsense, I just go, and I mean it, tell me more about that. And then he tells me, and I go, and why that?

Because if you give a person voice, they can spool out how they really believe things or don't believe things, but it's not my job to correct him. it's my job to connect to him because I believe that within everyone is the same we're made of stardust all of us literally it's not I'm not like oh wow we're literally made out of star dust right so if we're all part of the unity of everything then we should try to find a place where we can reside in that instead of where we're divided by beliefs because they're not facts even a religion is just a set of beliefs I believe doesn't mean it's true and doesn't I mean it's a fact.

It just means you've culturally attached yourself to that and decided this is your path, or you've rejected it, one of the two. Sounds like you're a lucky guy. How so? Well, just because of, you know, she's not lecturing you. She's not pushing. Oh, no, don't be wrong. When it comes to us, she's just like, no, that's wrong.

Oh, yeah. Okay, well, there you go. No, no, no. But I like that sentiment, and I like what you're saying there. And when you were speaking earlier, Ralph, about Passover. over and a bunch of family members and people are going to get together and have different opinions and who knows what that is. It reminds me of Thanksgiving 2025 because Americans, you know, are huge on their Thanksgiving. Like it's huge. And the family members all get together. And, you know,

that awkward moment where there's a trumper at the table and how a lot, I was reading a lot of pieces about how difficult it was for family to get together. Yeah. In Thanksgiving 2025, primarily due to the president of the United States. And I wonder, that sounds similar to what. you're describing with Passover, which is starting tomorrow, right? Is it, is it tomorrow, like, when the sun goes down? Yeah, every holiday starts the night before the holiday. And that's why your calendar got a little wonky. Yeah, that's right.

And it was my idea to get David here the day before Passover. Because you were on the lunar calendar. But I would imagine, because, I mean, I was just reading this piece about what is the objective of the war in Iran? and it was like, oh, the objective seems to now be reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but that only got, that's a result of the invasion in the first place. So it's almost like it seems like the objective has become to remedy the result, those consequences of the action in the first place.

Like, it all seems like such a dumb war. And I'm going to ask you as my rabbi, what do you think the objective of this war in Iran is and was? Well, that's really good. one for you. Well, no, it's just that it's, it's a difficult one because there are a lot of different agendas piled into that totally not thought through military action. Shocking. Yeah, so, but mostly it's about Donald Trump like everything else is. For me, it's about his narcissistic belief that he is going to rearrange the world according to what he wants. You know what I find interesting? that nobody is talking about the president of Venezuela,

who's in some jail in New York, and everyone's just like, anyway, moving on, when you start deciding that you can decide for a country, their future, he's been emboldened. He wants to crush Cuba, he wants to crush Venezuela, he wants to crush Iran. Unfortunately, with Iran, he completely doesn't understand

the complications of the Gulf states, Iran, the Sunni and the Shiite, the support for the crescent around Israel of Iranian-backed extra judicial areas, you know, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Alawites in Syria. This is a very complicated thing, and he's a very uncomplicated person. He truly believes that he's going to be

come Alexander the Great. Literally, he believes that. And what astounds me is that the Americans not only voted for him once, but twice. That, to me, is... It is astounding, isn't it? It's an empire...

The empire, our kids should be learning Mandarin. That's all I can tell you. Because they're sitting there, filing their nails, not spending assent on this ridiculousness, while Hesgath asks for, or $200 billion more dollars for weapons for something he can't win.

You can't, unless you put boots on the ground and spend 50, and even then, you can spend 15 years in Iran like they have in Iraq and Afghanistan and get nothing out of it. So it's just completely ridiculous. You know, the best line Carney had in his Devo speech for me was nostalgia is not a strategy.

Because that's what, that's why they vote for him. the good old white Christian days. I don't know if you're following a Telarico guy in Texas running for Senate. He's a devoutly Christian pastor who is weaponizing Christianity against the people who weaponize Christianity and saying, no, this is what Jesus was really about. And it's really fascinating stuff.

So do you think America went into Venezuela, and they pulled out the guy and they pulled him into, you know, he's in New York right now in prison and they took over the oil and then maybe Trump thinks, okay, we just did that there and it seems to have been pretty quick and dirty. We can do that in Iran. So what do these two things have in common? I think you just said the oil. Yes. So the only reason the Straits of Hormuz, which they'd never thought through. Right. There's two lanes for oil freighters in the Strait of Hormuz. they control it of the Iranians

and all we have to really think about, I think, is we want our gas, we want our oil and we don't care who we have to kill to get it. You know, people talk about that region and they, you know, I believe this, I believe that, they're fueling, literally fueling our way of life. And as long as we were, lie on that. You know who isn't? Half of Africa. You know why? Because the Chinese have electrified

half of Africa already. So these are the things that people don't, they just see headlines. They just see simple, impactful, breaking news, which didn't even start until OJ took a drive, right? That was the first breaking news. Oh, I thought it was like Gulf War, 1990. Yeah, but whoever heard of the Strait of Hormuz before all of this? Not. nonsense. And one wonders, is there on the banks of the river? Is that a future development site for Trump? Because he seems to abandon, he seems to abandon Gaza or the West Bank. No? Well, yeah, he's like the inmates are running the asylum at this point. Well, the first term, as awful as it was, he was surrounded by competent people, that first term. Like, he didn't like it because they would say no and tell him, you're out to lunch president or whatever.

But this time, I think, it was clear this time he surrounded himself with just the worst candidates. And yes, men and women. Unqualified sycophants and people who want power. Power really does a bad thing. It's interesting. The NDP just had a leadership convention, an Avi Lewis one. But for the NDP, I think what happened with them previously is they lost their way. because they had the scent of power in their nostrils.

If we, because what happened was, back to Jack Layton. Jack Layton got a hundred. And that was really a skewed result. It was Quebec, which often runs in a pack, as it were, going his way. But then they thought, hey, you know what? We're going to get there.

So they dropped what they're supposed to be, which is shit disturbers, and became, we have an idea. and, you know, a few nice things got done under Jugme. Pharmacare, dentic care, for those the most needy. Those are great things, and the liberals weren't going to do it without them. But it'll be very interesting to see what Avi does. He certainly doesn't have the backing of the conservative Jewish movement in Canada, that's for sure.

And he doesn't have the backing of Nenshi in Alberta. Right, because they're oil. And the British Columbia counterpart leading the end of the United States. And Saskatchewan, yeah. Because fossil fuel dependent. You can't win. During the last provincial election happened in Alberta, Rachel Knottley was leading the party.

And it was the summer. Literally the sky was orange with burning forests, and the NDP never brought it up in the election. Climate change was not on the table. Pocketbook issues and oil were on the table. So as long as we want to live this way, they're going to have to fuel us to live this way. And we don't want to change the way we live. But you can swap the way you power the way you live.

But you have to do it in a thoughtful way. Carney has abdicated responsibility for the environment. He was like at the UN as part of their idea of international climate change reduction. His wife has, I think, four degrees in climate. And he's just like, okay, let's build that pipeline. And that's disappointing. Well, he's trying to be a pragmatist and trying to fortify what we've always been, which is a resource-rich country that we sell.

And he just needs a couple more people to cross the floor. Well, he's got three by-elections right now. Well, that's right. So if he wins all three, he's done. He's done. Exactly. Yeah, but look, I mean, it's a, complicated world, I tend to stop, you know, you know, I used to work in politics doing

communications for people. I'm done. I'm done. My belief is that the revolution is within, not without. So there's this thing called Tikun, at Tikun Olam is repair of the world. Tikun is repair. And people go, yeah, no, I want to, you know, social change action committees at synagogues, all this. But before you do Tikun Olam, you have to do Tikun Hanefish. You have to do repair of your soul. Because otherwise, you are a broken and often bitter person with a placard at one side of a sidewalk going, you're the idiot! And the other side's going, no, you're the idiot. And everyone is just alone. But I believe that if we change ourselves, then whoever we come in contact with can be affected by that change in a more positive way. So instead of correcting them,

if you connect them, you've given them voice. But can't you do both? I mean, I'm surprised to hear you say that you're done as a political consultant, because didn't you quit radio to focus? No, no. I left Jazz FM because I wanted to explore that world. So I went and worked with Glenn Murray, who was the greenest cabinet minister I could find. And we had a wonderful time trying to do some things. We weren't doing it in the environment. We were doing it in training colleges and universities at the time. But it's a disillusionment with all of the shell games and power politics that play into things.

And I just believe, you know, I'm getting older. I don't have a lot of time to waste for, I'm right. I'm right. No, you're absolutely wrong, and I'm absolutely, forget it. I really believe that if we start treating each other as sacred beings and treating this earth as a sacred place, that's our work. That's more than enough work that very few of us are doing in earnest, right? So tomorrow night at Passover, well, tomorrow night I'm going to a rabbi's house, but the night after at our house and the family...

And that kind of rabbi. Yeah, well, actually, he's not that kind of rabbi. Okay, okay. He's the other kind of rabbi. No, he's the right, he's a good rabbi. Anyway, politics is not on the table. At your place, do you do politics? Well, we'll cover, we'll cover the waterfront. We'll give a little time to Trump.

We'll talk about Garnie. We'll talk about climate change and... You talk about Israel? Oh, yeah, for sure. We have family. We have family. Is there a divisiveness in your house, or is it a unanimous idea? Well, well, we all...

think the leader of the party over there needs to step down and maybe the world will be on its way to repair. So you think that's outside in? Yeah. Right. Yeah, no, I've given up on outside. You've given up? Because, so you don't get him

Ehudor Mert went to jail. Yeah. You know, it's about a horrible political system. Exactly. Exactly. So what do, you know, what do I care who's going to win theirs? Well, yeah. And ultra-orthodox control of, of, you know, everything of everything right so for me i'd rather fight my internal fight which is more than enough for me more than enough time for me is to fight my internal fight uh because so tomorrow's

passover is the story of slavery and freedom what are we enslaved by and what is our freedom and i see uh Torah as metaphor so uh pharaoh played by yel brenner uh pharaoh is is you the internal tyrant in our life, the one that's the thing inside us that sabotages our lives, not some historical figure. Pharaoh is the tyranny that we impose on ourselves, and Moses is the agent of change towards freedom. And the most interesting thing about the Exodus story

is how we believe we want to be free, but we don't want to be free. Over and over again in that story, the Israelites are like whining, complaining, this isn't enough, give us some meat, how long do we have to stay here? He had a hat. He had a hat.

And it's a little hot in the desert too. Well, for 40 years. But that's really about, that 40 years is the metaphor for the cleansing of yourself to your new self. So you can't have a slave mentality and enter as a free person in a new place in your life. You have to find a way to free yourself. So in this case, 40 years is enough for all those people who left Egypt to die, and the new

generation to be born that doesn't know that Egypt and slavery piece, right? So we have to think about, so I ask around the table, what enslaves you? Everyone would say their phone, right? Sure. Because it enslaves us. We just, but what beyond that? So, and then what makes us free? what is it we're doing to make ourselves free?

Because that's the point of that entire piece. Exodus is my favorite part of the Old Testament, by far. Exodus is a banger. Paul Marley, right? Yeah, exactly. I have a question. I have Jewish friends, proud Jewish people who would basically anything you say negative about Israel,

they deem it as anti-Semitism. Right. But I'm hearing now, at least from you, Ralph, It's not anti-Semitism. Can you clarify that? I'm able to separate Judaism from the nation of Israel. So my belief is, in the diaspora, 7 million Jews live outside of Israel,

7 million Jews live in Israel at this point in time. First of all, I believe the diaspora should have a vote in Israeli elections. Do we need another party? No, we need an ability to vote because we are deeply affected as Jews by whatever Israel does now. Right? So if Israel has an act of war against Palestinians and tens of thousands of people die, then people think that we're all in favor of it because we're Jews.

Ironically, a Jewish reflex action as a traumatized people is complicated because they don't want to, appear to not, they want to close ranks. They don't want to appear ununified because they believe then they'll be vulnerable to attack of one form another. So it's a bite your tongue, bite your tongue. But with this last Gaza war, for a lot of people, particularly young people, it's been very hard, they went past bite your tongue and just went, I can't condone what Israel is doing right now or become. so that's why I'm really interested in that civic Zionism because Zionism has become a pejorative it was a pejorative years ago when the United Nations

said Zionism equals racism 20 years later the UN took it back took them 20 years but there you go but what we have now is there are people in the government of Israel who for me are truly despicable hateful racist murderous people to in particular

who were in the cabinet and Israel is becoming something I'm finding hard to understand in its present formation so I wish that we as diasporic Jews spoke up more and said not my name don't do this for me

that doesn't mean I don't believe Israel has a I believe completely that Israel has a right to exist but I also believe that the entire region is a colonized mess. The French had Lebanon, the French had Syria. Jordan didn't exist, wasn't a country. The Ottomans had the entire region for 400 years.

The king of Jordan is displaced from Mecca. The Hashemites were kicked out of Mecca, so King Hussein and King Muhammad, they're all from Saudi Arabia, basically. The Sauds were given that. the British controlled Iraq, people should know these things. They don't. And we've got to find a way to just go, you know what? Do read a book for God's sake, you know, like read seven.

But work on yourself because that's a life's work. Like, you know, I can, I see it as we are part of a flow of creation that is unimaginable. two trillion galaxies. What? Like a galaxy has a billion stars. Two trillion galaxies? And I'm supposed to go, yeah, I know me and this God thing. We're having a convo.

Like I just don't relate to it. I relate to being part of creation and that everything is in creation. So I'm just a speck on a dirtball in a minor galaxy in the middle of nowhere. And my only job is to either be a cancerous cell in that body or a healthy cell. and in the same day, I'm usually both.

Okay, but when you're drumming, yes. What the hell are you doing? Being available. The joke for drummers, how do you know when the drummer's platform is level? He's drooling out of both sides of his mouth. Because if you're really drumming,

you have to let go. If you're holding onto your rhythm, your bass player will look, anyone will look at you. Like, come on, man. Like, what are you doing? If you make yourself available to what is. I wrote a song for our,

we do a men's retreat every year and I wrote a song for it called Don't Look Up. Heaven's not there. Heaven is right here all around us. Because we keep thinking, well, there's an afterlife and then that will be better.

This is it. It's a miracle what we're doing. The fact that we are aware of our existence is a miracle. So for me, stay there. But it's a miracle. We're talking in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Like, it's a miracle we're here.

Like, I feel like the majority of the world would say, this is heaven? This is hell. Ah. Like, we're so blessed where we are on this big blue marble. We were in Morocco in last May. And our driver, Hassan, he was a Berber, and he lived at the beginning of the Sahara Desert.

That's where his family is. We went to his house. Maybe there's 10, 12 pieces of furniture in the entire place. And there they are right on the edge of the desert. And people have very little. And I would, I'm not romanticizing them. Their life was no worse, no better than ours. They were okay.

They were fine. For us, our pharaoh is scarcity. one-third of the food people buy goes to waste. It's like I say, okay, go to your fridge right now, take out one-third, I don't care what condition it's in, and throw it in the garbage, and then wonder why you're now going to buy to compensate that one-third. So we believe in scarcity.

We don't believe in abundance. We are convinced by advertising that scarcity is what we are, because if you are adequate, what do I need your product for? but if you are inadequate, then you need the new Tesla. Not the old one. You need the old... Oh, they're making bicycles now?

Yeah, the new iPhone, not the old one. So we are convinced that we are on this wheel of materialism that needs to keep us churning and churning and churning. Many people doing work they don't really enjoy or like. People aren't really productive usually for more than four hours a day. we make them sit in an office for eight, get on a go train, go home. But that constant marketing that you're talking about,

which I try to push back on, you know, I push back on, it's part of the problem is that phone you talked about earlier where it's like we're all doom scrolling on our phone, but we're being marketed to there that the crap that's flying at my mom's face when she's on Facebook, for example, like to me, part of the problem is you now have decided

constantly throughout the day, you're going to have this thing in your face, but it's full of this marketing telling you, oh, you're inadequate, you need this or that. It's designed for addiction, for God's sake. It's literally designed for... Like the casinos, right? Absolutely. It's designed for addiction.

But if we live in a culture that doesn't believe that there is something at play much greater than their own personal need, then we will live the way we live. And the way we live is also a pandemic as recognized by the World Health Organization, as of loneliness. Individualism has led us to, I don't need you, and economic gain in North America means,

you know what, I don't want to talk to you anymore. You know what, we're having a rough year. I'm getting a divorce. We don't tough it out because we don't have to. But what's interesting now is the next generation that can't imagine owning their own home, sticking around, no rush. The way most of the world lives is intergenerationally,

except for the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, that's usually how you live. The more secular and material your world, the less family is an imperative. So we get the material world we want, but we don't get the satisfaction of a spiritual world. Okay, wow. We really dove right into it because I was going to share a comment off the top here.

Let me ask David. David, have you ever heard an episode of Toronto Mike with Ralph Ben Mergie before? No, but I've heard a lot of Ralph Benmergy on Ralph Benmergy. Well, that is great to hear. I'm not that kind of rabbi. Well, not that kind of rabbi. And I remember listening to him. Oh, yeah.

CBC days. Oh, I'm going to get to that in a minute here. But I had it on a guest last week. I think it was Friday. And he was awesome. He's a musician, pretty well-known guy. Andy Stochansky, does that name mean anything to you two gentlemen? No context.

Andy Stochansky. I don't think he's Canadian. I don't think he's Jewish. He's definitely Canadian. He is not Jewish because he went to my high school, which was a Catholic high school. Is he Polish? S-K-Y, I believe, is Ukrainian descent. Because it's S-K-I.

Ski, yeah. I learned that because Wayne Gretzky's grandmother was Ukrainian. Grandparents were Ukrainian. and that's how he got the SKY. Okay, don't worry, we'll have a Gretzky's segment in the next episode of Ralph Ben-Mirgin on Toronto Mike. But I want to shout out Andy Stochansky because he was very excited to make his Toronto Mike debut,

and he told me off the top, his favorite episode of Toronto Miked features Ralph Ben-Murgy. It was your most recent visit. He was going on and on about it on his... Cool, thanks, Andy. So Andy loves hearing you, Ralph Ben-Murgy on Toronto Mike, and I hope Andy's listening right now. You mentioned, David, that you heard on CBC Radio,

you would hear the great Ralph Ben-Mirgie. I don't know if we've ever really touched on this, but I told you my personal interaction with Ross Porter, right? Ralph? Maybe. Okay, so Ralph,

Ross had his lawyer send me the cease and desist edit demands because of episodes I did about Jazz FM. Yes. Okay, and it would be people like James B, who else, Bill King, Heather Bambrick, I could go on Danny Elwell,

people like that with Garvia Bailey, maybe even Ralph Benmergy. Okay, so could you share with us, though, your professional relationship with Ross Porter and specifically with regards to nightlines? Do you know, I still have my nightlines t-shirt, which is now 40 years old. A 40-year-old t-shirt.

With holes? It has one little one in the collar. I've got to get my wife to sew because I can't sew it. Obviously, taking care of real good swag. Yeah, but no, I wear it all the time. very soft now. So is that the oldest t-shirt you'll wear? I think so. There was a

kumbaya at Ontario PlayStation. Oh yeah, with Molly Johnson. Yeah, I'm on that one. The hip were at that, yeah, of course. Yeah. It's very interesting that when tragically hip were on, because they were really in their ascendancy. And Gord, I worked with Gord's brother,

Mike at CBC, well, worked beside him. But Gord, coming off stage, people were just, touch me, touch me. You know, that quasi-religious vibe. That's the Jim Morrison effect. And he was, he was, he was not wallowing in it.

It was just like, get me kind of out of here in a minute, please. Very uncomfortable. Ross. Ross, I'm very sad about Ross. Ross and I became friends when I went out to Winnipeg for my first job for the CBC at 30 years of age. It's the first straight job I'd ever had. I'd done journalism school for a couple of years,

and then Stuart McLean was my broadcast teacher and asked me, you don't need to be here. There's a job at CBC, Winnipeg. You should apply. So I did and I got it, and I drove a very old Volvo by myself with a, Sony Walkman. Remember those two little speakers you could plug into it?

Yeah. Really ugly. So I had, that was my music as I drove for two and a half days to Winnipeg. Anyway, I went there and I was doing that thing. And then Ron Robinson,

who was the host of Nightlines at the time, there were two shows that were the overnight FM shows. Brave New Waves with Brent Bambury and others before him. And Nightlines. So Ronnie was doing

this doing the hosting. And we were playing. CBC had a little baseball team. So we're playing. And Ron comes up to me. He was playing. And he said, listen, I'm leaving nightlines. You should apply. I was like, okay, sure. So I went to meet Ross, and we hit it off. And I became the host. while I was on doing that show my first son was born he was born in Winnipeg at St. Boniface Hospital and Ross and I became close

and stayed close when I went home to Toronto and throughout the years I was the best man at one of his weddings and we just had a really nice relationship and then I started working with him at Jazz FM and things got more complicated

and after six years of being there, I left. And because of some things that had happened, we really didn't talk for about five years. And then the palace revolt happened. I was working in politics at the time. And palace revolt happened, and that was that. And Ross had to leave. And he really wanted my support at the time.

And I didn't give it to him, because I thought there were still some things that he needed to talk to those 13 people who wrote the letter to him, and he wasn't going to. But I miss him. I don't reach out because I'm afraid that he'll just go, oh, go away or worse.

But he did great things with that station. I mean, it was remarkable what he got to pull off doing jazz 24-7, jazz, you know, not smooth jazz, real jazz. It was a bustling place. It was full of people. We had lots going on. And he did all that. So I don't begrudge him any of that. I just, I miss him as a friend. I know that what he did with you wasn't cool. And like I said, we can be cancerous or healthy, sometimes on the same day. Well put. I had to consult a lawyer. Actually, Ron Davis. Do you know Ron Davis?

Of course I know Ron Davis. Ron's in one of my books. Ron's Jewish? There you go. Who knew? Okay, so Pacon and I, Steve and I, we were watching a, I think it was a playoff baseball game one day in his house, in his basement, watching it at Jay's game.

And one of the players, Kinsler or somebody was in the game, and we both went, he's Jewish, which my father did about, everyone, including Dan Rather. He's Jewish. No, Dad, he's not Jewish. No, he's Jewish. No, Dad. He's not Jewish.

And then we made it into a game wherever they had an audience shot, we had to figure out if somebody in the audience was Jewish. That's Davis kind of game, I think. Steve and I would go, that guy's Jewish. Right? Well, Ron Davis, we talked about everything,

and he correctly advised me that I was, the only thing I said about Ross was what I read about him in the Globe and Mail. And I was well within my right, to cite the Globe and Mail. I had no information outside of the Globe and Mail article. So if people are curious what we're talking about,

the Globe and Mail covered this rather extensively. But I think the advice I got was sunlight being the best antiseptic, and I should post the lawyer letter on TorontoMike.com, and I did so. And I still remember the email I got from the lawyer, saying I'm well with my right to do that, but would you mind... Not doing it.

No, there were part of it. of the letter he said he didn't want in public. And I actually went back to that image of the article and I blocked out. Sort of like the Epstein file. Trump's redactions. Yeah. Yellow highlight. Yellow highlight.

How big a role does the Epstein files play in this invasion of Iran? How many magic markers does it take? Like it was really heating up there and wag the dog. Well, he just creates chaos. So flood the zone, they say it, right? Yeah, he's been flooding the zone. Dougie's kind of doing that too, provincial.

Well, yeah. It is, I mean, I have Keenan here on Thursday, Ed Keenan from the Toronto Star, and I was just documenting the things, and I realized, oh, like, he's kind of doing that flood the zone idea. Like, there's so much stuff he's throwing that you can't really track at all.

Yeah, we digress. He's got an ineffective opposition at this point. Right, yeah, he's a bit like a king right now, I'd say. But, yeah. Okay, so I was, So nightlines, so remind me, why did you leave nightlines? I left nightlines because I wanted to go home. Like I was in Winnipeg.

I was in the parking lot at Polo Park. If you're from Winnipeg, you know that. And I thought I saw somebody I recognized and I was about to go, oh, and I thought, what am I thinking? I don't know anyone in this city. And I just didn't like the feeling. And I really have a soft spot for Winnipeg, both my wife and I have worked in Winnipeg as journalists or broadcasters.

And I just wanted to go home, and there was a show that was becoming available because they had, they just started the show. They had a host. I don't think they or he was happy with the situation. He went back to the Meritimes, and I took over the show, prime time, and did that for two years. I was climbing, right? I was climbing the mountain. Right.

And that's really, you know, the Hindus talk about when you're, in that part of your life, where your ego is really a bigger part of things, kind of the motor for you, for a lot of people. The Hindus call it the householder phase of your life, right? You acquire things, you get a house,

you do all these stuff. And then, get older, like David and I, and you're in the forest dweller part of your life, the contemplative part of your life. So I do aging-disaging workshops. I just finished one, and I do them through my website at ralphbemmerge.ca. I'm going to be doing one actually in the fall. It's really interesting because it's in a Catholic nunnery. Take thee to a nunnery Get thee

Oh my goodness Romeo and Julietette Or take me to one Take me to church Apparently there's chicks there No Take me to the water Take me to the river

Yeah staple singers Don't know Like I do Singing it out Yeah Yeah well she's still with us I love their version

You know what I watched Rewatched was the last waltz. Yeah, I watched it quite a reality. It's so good. And almost everybody's Canadian. That's the best part. Right, mainly Canadian. You can throw in a little Bob Dylan

or whatnot. Hey, how come that Martin Scorsese who directed that film? Why can't he produce the SCTV reunion doc? I don't know. Why? I don't know. I wondered if you had any insights, only because we've lost two people who were at that reunion a few years ago. We've lost two of them now. So I just wondered if you had

any insight. No, I do remember I had a huge crush on Catherine O'Hara when she was still in Toronto. Marcus owned The Squeeze Club and Mary Margaret had a great album. Mary Margaret was not the best of interviews. Oh, tell me. She was shy, very, very shy, very self-conscious. But Catherine, I saw from afar and I just thought, ooh, I like her. She's so pretty. and funny.

What a great combo, right? What a shocking loss, actually, because she's just always been there. And always talented and always good. Well, you know, you get to a certain age, you had a little brown spot in your hand, and you go, oh my God, that's it.

I'm toast. You're on the other side of the mountain. Well, let me ask you about this other side of the mountain. Where is Catherine O'Hara now? Like, where do you believe, like where do you believe Catherine O'Hara is right now? I don't really have any views. views on

afterlife. Because you know what I did find interesting? Near-death experience stuff? So people who die on an operating table or in a hospital room or something or drown and get resuscitated. And what happens to them when they're dead?

Because they're actually dead for a while. Right. And it's so cool. So much similarity to what they talk about. They are our consciousness, but their body isn't really a body anymore. There was one person who described that they appear in what they feel is like being out in space somehow, but there's all these lights, and then three of the lights converge and come towards them, and then a telepathic dialogue happens.

I find that very cool. But a lot of NDE's. So there are people who get together in conventions, NDE's and talk about their experience. But when people start telling me the details of the afterlife and who's there to, who does the valet parking and all that, I just, that's just to me is,

that's the Chinese proverb. To be uncertain is uncomfortable, to be certain as ridiculous. St. Peter has helpers? Well, a valet. You've got to park the thing somewhere. Like,

I don't know. People see mediums, who get them to talk to the other side. I think we want to believe that there's meaning, that it's not Peggy Lee, that's not, is that all there is? So it used to be that people didn't live much past 45, 50 at the most. So an afterlife was a very enticing idea.

Now we live our afterlife right now. Like people live to 80, to 85. This is the afterlife, the other side of the mountain, right? Exactly. So speaking of somebody, who is doing just that in his mid to late 80s. I forget, I think he might be, he might be 88 years young.

I've got to check into it now, but Don Cherry. Yeah. Okay. So, and I think you've been on since I had Scott Thompson here in the basement. But what's your, what's your professional, personal relationship with Scott Thompson from kids in the hall? Well, my first wife went to acting, went to theater. She was in dance.

He was in theater at York. Yeah. And then after that, I got to know Scott through, I remember once I was doing a, I was a speaker at a luncheon thing for the aggregate minors of Ontario. Okay. Okay. And who's sitting beside me? His dad. Oh.

He goes, you know my son, Scotty. I'm like, Scotty. Thompson. Oh, yeah, sure I do. totally different than his dad but Scott I just knew because I knew all the guys on kids in the hall Bruce McCullough used to do stand-up I remember we drove to St. Catharins was a regular gig

you could go like if I was hosting so I could go every three four weeks features had to go like once every six months because it burned the material but anyways Bruce is lying in the back of my car while I'm driving to St. Catharines which was in retrospect not the best of idea. Trying to write a stand-up act. And it was really hard for him. He was much better as a performer and an actor and his ensemble skit guy.

So he did the gig and it was thankless. We drove back and he's like, not doing that again. That sucked. So here, I got 15 seconds kind of a gateway to why am I talking about Don Cherry and Scott Thompson. So 15 seconds. Oh, look, an audience. Join me every Friday night at 11 o'clock.

It's a new time. See you then. Friday night with Ralph Ben Mergie. A new time right after kids in the hall. Friday's at 11. 11.30 and you can blast. Nice little tie in there, but that's not the reason I brought up Scott Thompson. But when you hear that 15-second promo right there, Ralph, what goes through your mind? A trauma, mostly.

Well, I'm sorry for triggering you with the... Yeah, no, no. Friday night was traumatic. It wasn't fun for me. it's interesting was it the guy who writes about comedy really well taught at Seneca

oh my God why am I forgetting his name I do that every episode now oh anyways he wrote a piece somebody else wrote a piece where they actually said they had some sort of

sympathy for my situation on Friday night was it because it was Shabbat Oh yeah, that would be uncomfortable Well, you know what? That's a weird thing. I spoke about this recently. With Humble Howard?

Yes, with Howard. There was this thing in me. I remember thinking, I shouldn't be doing this show on a Friday night. Why am I here? Yeah, I shouldn't be doing this on a Friday night. Like, you're not supposed to be working. And I thought, where'd that come from?

But it was, you know, like when David writes books about Jewish-Canadian musicians. I wanted a show about Canadian pop culture celebrating it in the way an American would celebrate American culture. But, you know, it wasn't fun. It was too high status,

too many people's agendas in the show for what they wanted to see in it. That promo you played was because we were getting moved. Kids in the hall were getting better numbers. So they got down to 10. I got to 11. But when I started, that's when the national was changed from 10 to 9. Right.

So the whole schedule on the Friday was just in chaos. And I made the mistake of convincing Yvonne Fitzan that the first show we would do would actually be in the 9 o'clock because it was the last 10 o'clock edition of the national. And I wanted to be pre that. I should have just let it go and stayed at 10 o'clock after the national. was finished. The way we talk about Friday night with Ralph Ben Murgie, it's kind of a mind-blow when you consider you only made 35 episodes. Yeah. I know, but the way it's talked about, like, I still hear it kind of referenced in pop culture here and there. Sometimes it's an unfair punchline, but it's still

part of the pop culture zeitgeist if you're of a certain age. And you'd think it ran for like 20, you'd think it was Tommy Hunter show or something. Which I replaced. Right. Which ran for how many decades, though. Yeah, and then who did they replace me with? Rita McNeil. Right. So what does I tell you about what Canadians want? Right.

Not a guy named Ben Mergie. Well, okay, so there is, when Scott Thompson came over, I played a clip of him on your show. Oh, yeah, with Don Cherry. With Don Cherry. That was the first show we ever did. A million people watched that show. So a million people watch this. I'm going to play it now.

It's like a minute 40. When we canceled, 210,000 people watched the show. Well, you were no mash, okay? I thought it was a chicken. I'm still haunted by the mash finale with Alan Alda. I thought it was a chicken. Haunts me. He had a hat.

You had a hat. Here we go. This is a big, big thrill for me. I'm glad he can get dressed up for the occasion. Sit up. Well, he's on location. He's shooting. Yeah.

I heard you're doing a big show and we were working, so I thought I want to come and wish you the best. Thank you. To see Don here. Don't Cherie. Do you prefer The Donald or? just dawn. Well, I like Donald. Okay.

Okay, sit down, sit down. And you know, I heard, uh, it was, you were talking earlier about violence in hockey. Yeah. And I have to say that I am in your camp, sir. I love the violence in hockey. Well, when you start talking love, I'm in trouble. I'll tell you that. I'll tell you something.

You know, I really, I really enjoy the violence. We have the actual, we were having the same, and I think the reason the level of belligerence in the NHL is being brought down is the Europeans. The faggy Europeans. And we're having the exact same problem. We are having the exact same. Well, you should know. I would. I do, Dawn, listen to this.

And we're having the exact same problem in the gay community right now. Whenever a brawl breaks out in a bar, all the Europeans are in the corner saying, don't hit me, don't hit me. And the Canadians are out there. So when they say don't hit you. So when the friends, so when the flags in the court say don't hit them, what do you do to them? You kiss them,

I know, that's it. Okay, so that big loud cheer at the end is because Scott sits on Don Cherry's lap. You can't. Well, he snuggles up to him and Don puts his arm around him. Right. So I'm kind of, so I played it for Scott. just to, and Scott loves that clip.

Scott loves that clip, loves Don Cherry, loves everything about it. But when I listen to it, I find it a little uncomfortable. Like, this is a baby boomer dropping the F-sler and making a few casually homophobic jokes along the way. Like, I just think that's wild that that, that aired like that. I don't know. I just...

But it was Scott doing it. No, but, but yes, Scott drops the F-sler. You're right, and Scott is a proud gay man. He was... But Don Judge does drop the F-Sler. Well, because they're in it at that point. They're trying to improvise. And he's like, you know, when you say love, I start, I start.

But it is casually homophobic of Don Terry. Yes, but that is part of what Don Cherry is about, is toxic masculinity, rock and sock and sock him videos. Guys literally hired to punch the shit out of each other to make a living. Many of them ending up as alcoholics. Because imagine if you had to go to work every day and think, I have to be ready to punch somebody's face in or they're going to punch my face in. I mean,

that's why I don't watch hockey. We know so much more. Yeah, I don't watch hockey much at all anymore because you would have missed, you would have missed nine fights last night. Yeah, playing the ducks because then it started with Max Domey. And it's a seniority thing.

Apparently, Elliot Friedman was talking about who gets to take the first punch. Right, because Austin Matthews is out for the season because this player. Whatever. Yeah. So, yeah. So. So for me, a sport that relies on physically assaulting somebody to change the momentum of a game is not what I'm interested in.

My sport is baseball. I love baseball. When a guy hits a single, gets to first, and has a convivial conversation with the first basement, I find that to be fabulous. Then you need to go to a fantasy camp. I went to a fantasy camp twice for the Detroit Tigers because the Jays didn't have one. Lived like a ballplayer for a week. I've heard of these. Minus minus the groupies. I mean, literally, literally walking in. Ralph would have groupies.

You batting practice. No, no, no. Everything. This is in Lakeland. The tigers have had a longstanding relationship with Lakeland. Yeah, yeah. Forever, forever. And you walk in on a Sunday afternoon and you're into the clubhouse.

And they got my name correctly. They spelled Eisenstadt, right? Wow. D.T. So you have your own locker. Oh, you have your locker. You have your road. How expensive was it?

I think it was about, it was a birthday. I turned 60. And my family wanted to throw a party. I said, no, no, no, no, no. Go, I want to be, I want to be selfish. Could we do something? So older son, who's also a baseball nut, says, Pop, I'm going to check stuff around.

Bottom line, I think it was about five grand. It was 2007. Yeah. He turned 30. the next, that was 2005. In 2007, he turned 30, and I said, what can we get you for your computer or whatever? He says, I want to play ball with you, Pop.

And he and I, I relived the fantasy camp. Anyway, Ralph, if you're a baseball fan, as I know you are, you really should check him out. And most of the Js didn't have, and I don't even know if they have one today. That's interesting. I've got to check that out. I mean literally, literally, literally, and they divide you up in the teams. I had Willie Horton show me how to hit a ball, and Mickey Lollich.

Is he just died? Willie Horton did, yeah. No, no, no, Mickey Lollich just died. Oh, Mickey Lollich from the Tigers. From the Tigers pitcher showed me how to do this. Is it co-ed or is it only guys? It was co-ed. Oh, me and my wife, oh, this beautiful woman doing BP.

Just film it for this documentary series. We're going to drop on Gem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, anyway, sorry, we died. I digressed into baseball. David's all ready for his episode. I love it. Baseball is so,

I love the nuance of baseball. I absolutely love it. There's like three games with any game. First to third, third to six, six to ninth. There's pitching, like when people was boring

and it's like a one-nothing game, that's because they're pitching great. 50 strikeouts in that first series. Oh, well, that was insane. It's the record. Poor,

Ponce, he hurt his knee. Yeah. So, game in a night of the league. So he had a, position player pitching. Which is not that.

I totally object to. Yeah. You should not be allowed to do that. It makes the game a farce. Yeah, it's a bit of a... Really should not be allowed to have position players pitch. They were pitching batting practice to these guys. And they were hitting home runs.

And of course, they're hitting them because they want stats. They want to look good in the stat sheet. Look at me. I got four RBIs. You hit batting practice. So, no, I really believe that they should get rid of that. You should have to use your picture. mercy rule? No, I think

that your pitchers are your pitchers and you got to have a long reliever that you leave at the end of a bullpen if you think you're going there. And if you have to, I guess there should be some ways saying you're out, but even that, you can't do that in major league sports. You can't just say, we quit.

There's too much of a lead. But it all comes down to winning. A year ago we were all looking to hang Shapiro and Atkins from the I was driving that bus. From the nearest yard on. Me and Wilner.

Hang him high. Hang him high. Yeah, 100%. Hang them high. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden it's genius. It's Messiah revisited. Yeah.

Now he's extended and everybody nods their head and says, that makes sense. Yeah, 100%. A year ago, I was done with this team and look what they did. I never, like when nobody's watching, that's my favorite time. It's just like, okay, you'll be back. When there's winning in the air, you'll be back. I'm watching baseball. Right.

Right? It's not just the J's. It's the game itself. It's just a beautifully designed game. For sure. Yes, absolutely. So Don Cherry, just to wrap up the Don Cherry thought is, there has been, you know, people have been writing think pieces lately about Don Cherry getting the Order of Canada. Do you, Ralph Ben-Murge, have any thoughts on Order of Canada for Don Cherry? Well, I have to say, Don is part of a time, a time where when you had a concussion, you shook. it off, a time where, you know, fighting was the best thing you could watch, right? Rock'em Sockham videos. Semenko and those guys. But I also believe that Don had a sort of casual racism to him that I really couldn't abide. You know, the way he talked about chicken Swedes meant that Boria Salming, an incredibly

talented defenseman had to put up with people attacking him physically over and over again to show that he wasn't a chicken sweet. Right. Right. So for me, he did a great disservice to a game that I no longer find interesting. Dump it in. I like international hockey. You know why? There's no fights. Right. And the rink is too big for you to mess around. I played I played select hockey to high school hockey. I was a decent player. I had friends who were way better than me, but I made the teams.

And we once played on international ice, and I was a defenseman. And I remember going into the corner thinking there was a guy in front, and my partner hadn't shown up yet, but I thought, I'm going to the corner to see if I can stop this guy from passing out front. Big mistake.

By the time I get to him, think about when Mitch Marner passed the puck, to McDavid through the lanes of Austin Matthews. That's what happened. And there was no way I was getting back to the front of that stopped the guy from scoring. So I learned that you really have to be positional. You have to be smarter about where you are,

efficient in what you're doing, and not fight. That kind of hockey I love. Now, I will point out that same Four Nations tournament you're describing did include some fisticuffs. Well, to Chuck brothers. They were just morons. They started that game with... The Chook brothers are just...

They're toxic masculine. Neanderthals. Well, they're toxic masculine. They're Don Cherry boys. Right. Their dad, Walt, was pretty well seen. He was a tough guy. Keith.

Keith. Keith, Keith, Chuck. When did the NHL say we're going to tone down the fighting? Was that after Don Cherry left the scene? Because it's come back even with more vengeance. Like, has there been, was there a mandate that says, we've got to stop? Now we're going to start up again because we need to. more eyeballs.

I don't think there was a manned. No, there wasn't. There was just what's happened. Look, in America, fighting in hockey, it has attracted a lot of people. But there's a sport where people just punch the shit out of each other. That's crazy. Slapshot.

Yeah, curling, it doesn't have that. You know, hurry hard, kish! You know, it doesn't have that. I don't know how we got into sports. No, we're talking Don Cherry Order of Canada. Yeah, I mean, the problem with the Order of Canada is, There's more than a few people on that list, I'm sure, who could have a, you could cancel them. But if you give it, you give it at a time, just give it.

It's tougher to get an order of Ontario certificate than it is an order of Canada. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've tried for a number of people. Well, Ralph should have both, right? Ralph's perfect, perfect candidate. Yeah. As a Passover gift.

As a Passover gift. Here's some matzah. And I got this thing you can have it to like a metal, but it's not. It's a pin. Put it in your lapel. Forever and a day. You know what's Carney wears his order of Canada? I want to tell you, when Yenz Lindemann, quick, quick side of bar on the pin,

Yens Lindemann fire in California and everything else, Heather Hiscox was doing an interview, and I happened to be in the car listening. And she said, what do you do when this conflagration is going on? And what do you pack? What do you do? He said, my wife got a bunch of stuff into a suitcase. I'm a proud Canadian. I grab my Navy blazer with my Order of Canada pin

and my matching slacks and my nine trumpets, and I got the hell out of the house. I get the dog and three cats and the kids and my wife, and that's it. Yeah, that's all you need. The rest can burn. I'm hopping on my bicycle. Okay. So there's a Buddhist challenge.

Yeah. So in Buddhism, one of the things to challenge your sense of permanence, if I walked into your house and just saw anything, that mask, said, oh, I really like that mask. Can I have it? Would you be able to give it away? That mask? Yep.

And you're asking if you can have it? Yeah, if I just walked in and said, I love that. If you, Ralph Benmergay, wanted that mask, I would let you have it. What can't I have that's down here? because there's a lot of things that have memories attached to them, right? You know what? I would say there's probably,

I'm not big on stuff. Like, I don't think there's anything down here. The one thing I would say, can I keep maybe, is that very rare copy of the Mr. Mugs reader. Mr. Mugs,

if you are of a certain age and you were in school in Ontario, that was the readers that taught you to read. And I have that because my mom was a teacher, so she scored it for me. But that in kindergarten,

and that was what I used to learn to read, Mr. Mugs. I think I'd like to keep that. So if I said, I don't think there's anything else down here. Oh, yeah. You know what, I mean, we'd have a little chat about, why do you want it, Ralph? And if it was your kid and you, you know, we talked about it and you had a good reason.

I would probably let you have it. The two Jewish guys are going, Mr. Mugs, hell is that? You got to be a certain vintage. I grew up in Alberta. I grew up in Calgary. I don't remember. Mr. Mugs at all.

No, but I was at a propeal school, so I'd half to English, half to Yiddish. Yeah, yeah, for the first five years. So, Mr. Mugs didn't make it. When they were forming Israel, they had to make a decision on what would be the official language. And it was between Yiddish

and the reinvention, the making modern of Hebrew, which was only in biblical texts and that kind of holy language. And David Ben-Gur, said Hebrew and all the Eastern Europeans who were really behind the formation of the state were like, what do you mean? Yiddish should be the language. That's what we all speak. It's called speaking

Jewish for God's sake. And he said, no, Yiddish is a slave language. It is a language that we had to adopt in our slavery. Here we will speak Hebrew, which is our original language. And that's So when we came from Morocco, I was at a school where everybody was Eastern European Jewish. 97% of the school was Jewish, even though it was a public school. And I'd have, there was a thing where my dad was at something, and somebody said to him, you don't speak Yiddish? And my dad said, well, it doesn't really come in handy in North Africa. You know, not a lot of Muslims speaking.

Yiddish in Morocco. Earlier I asked you, Ralph, about your relationship with Ross Porter. Yes. You shared with that. I'm curious only because when people talk about Canadian late night talk shows, they inevitably will talk about you

and they will talk about Mike Bullard. Yeah. Share with us your professional and or personal relationship with Mike Bullard. So the first time I met Mike was Pat, his brother Pat Bullard. He announced,

I don't know who else was in the car. We went to do a gig somewhere out of town, and Pat's car broke down. So Pat, I think we got to a gas station or something before it broke down. So Pat had to call Mike, who I'd never met, and wasn't a stand-up at the time, to come and get us. And he did. And he looked way different.

and Pat. Pat was this tall, slender, classically handsome guy, and Mike was a round-faced, you know, pugnacious kind of character. And I thought nothing of it. And then he started showing up at the club to do bits. Pat was still doing some stuff. He's been living in L.A. forever. But Mike was there, and Mike was tough. So if somebody heckled, that was the, then it made his night. because he'd really go for them. But he was really good with the audience, and he had a certain charm to him. So we knew each other through stand-up,

but then when I did Friday night, I would feature stand-ups. And for a lot of them, that was their first national exposure. And Mike, in the second year where Mark Brescent was producing the show, I wasn't, we had a whole segment for just Mike to do

on our show. and from there he parlayed that into when I was canceled into a thing with CTV to do the Mike Bullard show, which lasted for five years. And in the first year, very kindly, he invited me on the show. And I went on the show and he thanked me for cutting the path, as it were. Right. Blasing the trail. Yeah, and I thought he was very generous doing that. It was a very kind thing for him to do. And then Mike got into all kinds of stuff that was really unfortunate.

unfortunate. But what stuff? Well, the CFRB stuff were, you know. Oh, Cynthia Mulligan. Yeah, and Cynthia Melgan was City TV and, you know, orders not to be near her and all the stuff

and never saying that it was true. And things kind of devolved for him. You know, the show was over. You know, if you let in, if you're a public person and you let the audience and the critics and all that define who you are and your happiness, then you're going to have a problem.

Even at the worst of times in my career where people were really speaking of me unkindly, I had to take my own counsel. I learned that in stand-up because you'd get off-stage at stand-up and somebody goes, that was great, and you'd say, no, that wasn't great at all. Like, I kind of sucked. So I'm not going to really trust that. And then somebody else would write something where they'd say, you were horrible.

And except for taking the grains of truth out of it, which I always tried to do, the rest I had to go, you don't get to define me. I know what I'm trying to do, and I know if I'm doing it or not. But if you let the, that's what I mean about work on the inside. Because things from the outside will always affect you if you let them. Your happiness does not come from things that have.

happen to you, happiness comes from things you give to other people and to this world. That's under your control. But if you're deciding that you're having a bad day because somebody gave you a hard time, then they win. They've given you a hard time. But if you know who you are and you keep working to try to be a better person, you're fine. Did you have any contact with Mike Bullard in the last several, you know, the last few years of his life? No, no. I mean, remember, 11 years ago, I moved to Hamilton. you don't bump into people from showbiz and things like that. And I left show business behind. You know, I moved into communications and politics.

I went to Sheridan and worked with the president for five years, you know, in the executive office to just try to turn Sheridan into a university and turned it into a creative campus with Mary Priests and wonderful people there. And after that, it's been all spiritual work. Yeah, I do the, I have my podcast, but my podcast is a spiritual podcast, you know. So, uh, not that kind of rabbi. Yeah. It was at all, but it wasn't always designed to be a spiritual podcast, right?

It did have a bit of a pivot. Well, when you and I started with it, we were looking for the spiritual aspect of, of performers because we thought marquee value would help. And we, we got some very interesting conversations with people going. Corrin, a lot of great conversations. Yeah, but singers, performers, you know, actors. I remember interviewing Howard, you know. Humble Howard.

About his religion, which is golf. Right. Right. That's his religion. Right. You know, and he loves it. And he knows every minor detail of it. And he, it challenges him to be a better person.

Because he used to be, he told me, he used to be the guy who would throw his club or break his. Used to be? Yeah. And he said, I had to learn to just go, hey man. Yeah. It's not about you. Just play the game and see if you can get it right. Yeah, he's done a lot of work on himself.

Yes, he certainly has. He's a wonderful man. Absolutely. Now, he was good friends out west when he had a radio show. I think it was Calgary. Humble Howard would have on this local chap on his show. This guy's name was Lou Skeez's. Okay.

And when Humble Howard left CFNY, 102.1, for the gig was also owned by the same company down the hall, I suppose, a gig on Mojo Radio, which was talk radio for guys. I got my underwear on. Mojo Radio. Scratching my testicles. Mojo Radio. Well, that speaks. I think Don

Sherry would have enjoyed Mojo Radio, probably. So Mojo Radio's morning show when it launched, was Humble and Fred. And because of Humble's relationship with this Lus Keezes fellow, Humble got Lose Skeeses a role on 640 as like a business guy.

He would come on and talk to, I don't know, eventually it would be John Oakley when he replaces Humble and Fred, but prior to that, different shows, this guy, Luskeezus, would come on and talk business. Lou is also, I believe, also had a role on BNN, the business news network here.

So, I think it was called report on business at the beginning. But anyway. That's original. Who wrote with that? So Luskeez's long-winded way of saying, I was thinking about your fine podcast, which is still dropping new episodes, and I love it very much. Not that kind of rabbi.

everybody should subscribe to this podcast that Ralph hosts and produces. But I was thinking about that day that I invited Lou Skizes over here because I was sitting where I am now and Lou is there and you, Ralph, are right where you are right now. And you too had this conversation and this episode is still in the Not That Kind of Rabbi podcast feed. Lou Skizes as one and only appearance on Not That Kind of Rabbi. But I distinctly remember how, like I thought it was compelling personally. Like, I couldn't believe this conversation. And I remember afterwards, you and I went for a slice of pizza so you could decompress because it was something else.

What do you remember about the Luskees' episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi? Well, I wrote, remember earlier in this, we talked about Connect over correct. I wrote a piece about, I didn't name him, but I wrote a piece about it in Facebook and got well over 100 people commenting on it. because I was using it to, including Bob Ray, wrote a very nice thing about a guy in Europe that he had been listening to who had the same message of connect over correct. Anyways, I described what happened,

which was at the time, I worked for the Ontario Green Party for a long time as one of their communications people and was heavily involved in climate change activities and things. Lou came on. I didn't know him. You said book him. Yeah, well, I knew him very well.

He was a big supporter of the show and had come on several times. I know. So he just says climate change is a hoax. That's how he starts, I believe. And at that moment, I had the presence of mine not to go, what? What are you talking about? Instead, I said, oh, well, tell me more about that. And Lou proceeded to basically say that, I think he even literally said that the thermostat

on the sun was broken and that this was just you know solar flashes and no big deal and certainly has nothing to do with us and he kept wanting to provoke and i didn't go for it he was you know picking a little bit of a fight i think yeah and i just wouldn't i i just was in a space where i just thought i'll just let people listen to you connect correct yeah and people were afterwards we're emailing going why didn't you just take them apart yeah i think some people wanted you yeah they want a fight that's what media does. To give him what he was looking for. Right?

Like the idea that you have people who are professionally hired in the Republican Party, for instance, to go on every talk show there is to gaslight everything that's being said. I mean, that's just the way it works. Everyone wants a fight. If 98% of scientists believe that climate change is man-made, find one in the 2% and have a so-called 50-50 conversation. It's just complete nonsense. Right.

Right? But this is, in journalism school, they taught us objectivity, balance. Both sides. Both sides. Yeah, which is bullshit sometimes because 98% is no, there's no both sides. Right, right, right. There's 2% are being funded by oil companies, and that's just that. So, anyways, he did that, and he finished, I remember he finished, and he gave us both

a pair of, uh, novelty socks. Yeah. And he became very nice. and his it was really interesting because his daughter Madeline was a at the last winter Olympics unfortunately didn't do well but she's an Olympic level figure skating two Olympics in a row now she's and we almost meddled in the team event because she did not do well in her own event

but in the team event she skated very well yeah so anyways that was just a perfect example of connect over correct because I wouldn't have gotten anywhere with him but it would have it's like hockey. Do you want to fight? Great. It's a fight, right? Sometimes you should just let people spool themselves out. And you decide at home, is this guy or is this woman saying something that I can relate to and I understand? Or is it just bullshit? So I polled, because I do think of that episode periodically. Like, that's how interesting I found that episode. Actually, when I designed that episode of my head, which was Lou and Ralph, I thought of you as polar opposites. Okay, but I liked you both and I had a good relationship with both of you. And I thought, oh, they're polar opposites. What happens if they're in a room together to chat for like 45 minutes? And it actually ended up being what I kind of thought it might be.

But very compelling and interesting. But I pulled 45 seconds. So this is, I actually did not pull the clip about the sun being, having a broken thermostat and all that nonsense. But here's what I pulled. And I think it's kind of interesting. I want David to hear this too. Here we go. So you live alone and you die alone?

Well, you take somebody with you? You one of those crazy gun guys with the suicide, kill the family, kill myself? There are people around you sometimes if you're lucky when you're dying and sometimes... It's usually a paid attendant, isn't it? It might be for you. Well, by observation, the statistical norm is people die alone. But it sounds like you have a certain cynicism about all this. No, it's just that I haven't bought into the same value program that you have.

I have a different view of this reality. That you're on your own. Well, aren't you? Well, I'd like to think that we're all walking each other home. There's a little excerpt, but that's what I'm talking about. At first, he's kind of trying to get you in a fight about, he goes off on this whole like murder-suicide angle at the beginning, which is like, it's like, where did that come from?

But then I think you handled him very well, and I think you did a great job, but it is interesting, his outlook on life. It's very lonely. Cold and lonely, and we all die alone. It's every man for himself. I know you talked about why does everybody have to own their own lawn, mower. I've heard this

Ralphism. Like we can all share a lawn mower, you know, but it is fascinating to witness loose skeezes on not that kind of rabbi

and it just brought me back to like the early days of not that kind of rabbi. It's still a great show, but it is far more spiritual now. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm in the weeds. And at ralphbanerghi.comer.

I offer people spiritual counseling. It's really been an interesting thing for me to do. I do workshops, but I also do one-on-ones with people. And I really find that there's a lot of yearning on people for people for meaning, for renewed purpose. Older people who had a career and had a business card are all of a sudden not in a business card anymore. So, you know, what do we do with our lives?

I have clients who are going through transitions of all kinds of loss and grief and things like that. But I also have clients who are just looking for a spiritual, way forward that they've gotten to a point in their life where it's not enough to just collect stuff and do stuff and be stuff. They really want to feel like there's something going on inside them that they can relate to. We use guided meditation with people. We use all kinds of tools. I did three years of training to do it. And it's a horrible title, spiritual director, because it's like, go over there. And we deal with things like, things like,

people walk in and go, look, I don't believe in God. Let me get that. And I go, okay, tell me about the God you don't believe in. And then we have a conversation. And you don't have to, it's not about God. It's about, do you see things, do you see relationships as sacred? Martin Buber talks about I and it? What use is David to me?

If he's not enough use to me, I'll look around him at a dinner party. But it's I and thou is a sacred relationship. So if you treat people like they have a sacred part to them, that's an important thing to do. So if anyone is interested in that kind of stuff of spiritual counseling, please go to ralph benmergy.ca. And get in touch with me. I'd love to have you. I can't think of a better person to direct my spirit than Ralph Benmergy.

Ralphbenmergy. David, how was this episode? The spirit of Passover. Ah. Happy Passover again to you, Ralph, and you, of course, David. Thank you. And two nights of fun, lots of matzah, and maybe something for the constipation from the matzah,

because it's a thing, because if you don't get the whole wheat, which is like eight bucks a box, a box, cut me a break. Who's zooming who is what I want to know. Aretha Franklin? No, me and the matzah box. That's what it is.

That's what it is. Rosset is not horseradish, by the way. Have the Moroccan harass it. It's got the dates and the walnuts. It's a sweet thing. That's two nights of fun. One night of fun is May 21st when I'm headlining at the Elma combo. What do you mean you're headlining?

Yeah, I know. I was going to talk to you. Maybe I need to get you back here before May 21. Get your advice. What are you doing a feature? Like a one-man show. Wow. I know.

So I do have Rob Pruss on keyboards on stage of me because there's some musical elements there and he's a, you know, a prodigy. Oh, I've got to see this. Well, you got to see this. Well, you got to see this. Well, you got to have to see this. Well, you got to buy a ticket, though. This is, uh...

Who knew? If you go to Toronto Mike.com and you click Elmo gig at the top, you can buy tickets. I really hope people come out for this. It's a one-time only thing. I don't think it'll ever happen again. What possessed you? Well, that's part of this... That's part of the one-man show.

How it all came to be. Is it a Friday night? Not a Friday night. Thank God. Oh, I don't know. I think it's Thursday. I got to check out. What is May 21st?

You see, he doesn't care about us. He really doesn't care. Gentiles do lots of fun things on Friday nights. Yeah. It's a thing here. I rub ham on my face on Friday nights. Gotta check your calendar. It's such a thing.

Always check your calendar. All right. What day is it? Oh, it's a Thursday. There you go. That's for you guys. I'll ever show them to the Friday show. You know what we're going to do next time as well, Ralph? We're going to talk about, I have questions about killer instinct.

Do you know what killer instinct is? Oh, would you stop? What do you do? You just dredge up my life? Well, I actually went to IMDB.com and I said, what is the most popular item in the IMDB of Ralph Ben And it is a 1982 movie called Killer Instinct. Yeah, like you get, I don't think they count like you playing yourself. I think it's you being an actor.

Oh, I see. Oh, it was. So, you know, Nick Campbell? Of course, Nicholas Campbell. He was the real star. And Henry Silva, do you remember him? I have to see him. No, I don't know.

Henry Silver was at the dime store Jack Palance. Oh. And he had to, he was a hillbilly in the movie. I am the law. We stayed in Diller, Georgia for a month. John Lennon was assassinated while we were there. Oh my goodness. That's December 8th, 1980.

Oh, my, yes. I just saw the Paul McCarney photography exhibit at the art gallery. It's very good. It's supposed to be great. Yeah. The great Jim Sheddon gave me a personal tour. How long is it running? Until early June, I think.

You got time, David. There's time. But I don't have much time. My extra is going here. So get Elmo tickets. Much love. I didn't even do this. I'd even thralled in that convo.

But Great Lakes Brewery is our craft beer of choice, and we love Palma Pasta on Toronto, Mike. Much love to Palma Pasta. Also, Ridley Funeral Home, you asked what this is. I gotta do this real quick, Ralph. This is like a flashlight, a bottle opener, a measuring tape, and a leveler all built into one,

courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. I gotta get one for David in the next episode here. So enjoy that, responsibly, please. And much love to recyclemyelectronics.ca. And of course, I only know Nick Aini's thanks to David Eisenstadt. So thank you, David, for that intro. And that brings us to the end of her 1870 second show. See you all.

I don't know, in 10 minutes when my special guest is David. Because you made a mistake. Oie.