See the "letter of ethics"  אגרת המוסר of Reb Israel Salanter



There is what one could call a physical evil inclination. That is what you might say is the desires and bad character traits that are just a part of being human. This evil inclination has aspects of hatred, anger, desires, greed, etc. There is also a spiritual evil inclination that is cunning. It excels in getting a person to fall into traps, it is what we usually call the Satan. It hates good because it is good. And it affects mainly people that have been freed from the first level of evil inclination. So you usually find the greatest evil in people that you would normally consider to be saints. They in fact are saints since they have been freed from hatred and anger and greed etc, but that instead of making them  better, it just exposes them to the more subtle level of evil inclination the actual Satan.

What irony it is that when a person wants to find a true saint for guidance, that he finds instead a person who has in fact killed his lower evil inclination, but is subject to the higher evil inclination.
and you can  SEE THIS ALL THE TIME. You have perfectly normal well adjusted kids that find some so called tzadik and then they become disaster zones.

And this tzadik because he has killed his passions and separated himself from the pleasures of this world has in fact spiritual powers. But since he is subject to the Satan the powers are used in the wrong ways.

In a practical sense this is all too simple. Don't go to tzadikim.


Rather learn and keep Torah just like it says.