Rambam on Emulating The Tzadikim

The beard and the hat and the jacket and all that stuff means absolutely nothing. Nothing. The fast nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Unless it's an obligate obligatory fast, as a matter of fact, unless you are be key, meaning an expert on all of the Allah court, all of the basic Allah court, all of them. Allah court Shabbat, Nida, everything. Kashrut. Limud Torah, you're Mamash you're like a in this generation a Talmud Chacham. You're not even allowed to touch any of those things. According to the Rambam. The Rambam in Shmona Prakim says that many people look at the stories of the Tzadikim. They look this Tzadik used to fast from from Motzei Shabbat to Friday. I can't fast for a week, but I'll fast for a day. Why? No reason. I want to fast. I want to make myself holy. Make yourself holy, learn some Gemara. Make yourself holy, learn Allah court. Make yourself holy, learn Parashat Shavua. Learn something. Your fasts are meaningless. No, no, I go to a Mikveh. If you're tamei before the Mikveh, you're tamei after the Mikveh. It's not The water is not going to help you if you're not learning Torah. It's not going to help you. Might as well go to a pool. At least maybe have some fun. If you're tamei before the Mikveh, it's not going to help you. If you're not learning Torah every single day, it's not going to help you. Whoever's giving you this illusion that you can go to the Mikveh once a week, once a month, once a year, whatever it is, and that's going to somehow fix it, that's 100% idol worship. It has nothing to do with Judaism. It's complete stupidity. These are the words of the Rambam. The Rambam says those people that take the masim of the tzadikim, the things that the deeds the acts of the tzadikim and do it themselves are completely stupid. This is the Rambam says this. They're stupid people. Because they have no idea why the tzadikim even did what they did. And yet they compare themselves to the tzadikim by doing it. They think that the tzadikim became tzadikim because of the mikveh. Became tzadikim because they fasted. They became tzadikim because of the Torah they learned. Not because of the beard they grew. Not because of the payos and the hats. So instead of focusing on all these little things Rabbi Elazar ben Chisma says first and foremost understand what's foundation and what's not. The laws of kinin bird offerings. That's the stuff nobody wants to learn. It's a Mishnah with no Gemara. You have the Mishnah came Mishnah yes the oral Torah and the Gemara explains how the Mishnah got to where it is. Whatever it says, how do we get there? What's the sides? A versus B. How did they get to this? How did they get to that? Why? Who? When? All the different questions. Everything has a Mishnah. Kinin no Mishnah. Bird offerings no Mishnah. There's a million and a half different issues but there's no there's no Gemara about it. There's no like questions about it. It's questions in different masechtot in the Gemara but not there's not a specific uh order of uh what's it called of uh Gemara on masechet Kodashim. He says studying that that's the foundation. Why? That's the difficult stuff. That's what purifies you. Not going after sipurei tzaddikim and a couple of jokes. Okay, sipurei tzaddikim is good. Couple of jokes is good. But a little bit. A little bit. It's not the ikar. It's not the primary. People go to shiur at Torah, instead of shiur at Torah, it's a comedian. No, is he funny? Yeah, yeah. An hour and a half you're going to laugh. If it's an hour and a half you're laughing, it's not a shiur Torah. If you're laughing for an hour and a half, it's not a shiur Torah. Gemorra Maseches Shabbos, page 30. It says Rabba used to start with mil de bichuta. Mil de bichuta. He start with a joke. So, everybody knows this Gemorra. Everybody knows this Gemorra, especially people I like to tell jokes. Some- I used to always used to have, maybe a 2 3 years ago, I had a student. He would come to my shiur, it's a mach kaparas avonos for me. It was like I would have to suffer that he came to my shiur. Why? Every 5 minutes he interrupts me with a joke. Every 5 minutes he would interrupt with a joke. And the joke and then the mach mach the never-ending journal of jokes. It's kaparas avonos. Speaker, you have to focus. You're looking, you're thinking. It's yet di shmaya. Every 5 minutes you're interrupted with a joke. And everybody's laughing. You got everybody warmed up. You got everybody to do something. God gives you a joke. Kills the whole thing. By the way, Gemorra Maseches Avodah Zarah says special punishment from heaven on somebody like that. You should know. Can't just joke around in the middle just for no reason. Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenus, Rabbi Akiva's Rabbi, says it's very sad. Very sad for the jokesters. Very sad. The beginning is suffering and their end is destruction. Shem Elachem. He says for that little joke, you like to joke in the middle of shiur Torah for no reason, interrupt the shiur Torah, you should know. He's Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkenus says, "The beginning is suffering and the end is destruction." Why? You ruined the entire shul. So, now you have a Gemara in Shabbat says Rabbah started a shul with mil de chuta. He started a shul with a joke. How could it be? It says he started the shul with a joke because the rest of the shul was full of scary stuff. The rest of the got the shul got everybody's attention. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Great. Now you're ready. I know you're all awake. Let me tell you about Gehenna. Let me tell you about what Hashem really wants. Let me tell you about what happens when you're just a faker. Let me tell you about that. The rest of the shul, it says in Gemara, says in the shul, the rest of the shul was 100% fear. I'm really out of order, please.