I was in the Na Nach Breslov place yesterday and noticed a book that brings lots of the stories of the Gemara and Midrash. מעשי גדולים. [The third vol by Nisim Gaon paragraph 740] There is brought a statement of the sages that there are seven kinds of Pharisees [Prushim] that are destroyers of the world.[note 1] And there Rav Nisim Gaon brings an event that gives an example of one type of Pharisee that one needs to be careful to avoid. One person was in a foreign country, and had made a lot of money in his work there. Then on his way home, he had to stay over Shabat in one town. He thought to himself, "To whom can I entrust my money over Shabat until Sunday?" He saw someone with all the religious clothing and gear and Talit and Tefilin that advertises that one is religious. He thought to himself "To whom better could I find trustworthy to entrust my money?" So he gave it to the religious guy to hold until after Shabat. On Sunday morning, he went to the fellow's house and asked for his money back. The fellow asked, "Who are you? I never saw you before in my life."
Since that was all the money he had and for which he had worked for years, he was upset. He prayed to God: "I did not trust that man, I trusted in Your Name, the name of God that is written in the Tefilin. The Elisha the prophet came to him and said, "Go now to that man's house. He is not home and his wife will answer the door and tell her that her husband sent you to pick up the money, and give her certain signs." He did so and got his money back. When the husband returned home and found out what she had done he said, "Enough of this. Let's go back to our original faith"--[They were Samaritans]
There are other statements of the Chazal [sages] that held the religious hypocrites are to be avoided and they specifically mention the Prushim [known in the New Testament as the "Pharisees." So we see that the groups Jesus was being critical of was not the sages of the Gemara nor their fore-runners. Rather the groups of the super religious just like you have nowadays with their show of religiosity to get money. They have nothing in common with the sages of the Mishna and Gemara.
[Besides that, I might mention that the religious clothing is for me the first sign to run away. ]
[note 1] The actual Gemara starts out that there are seven types of Pharisees that are destroyers f the world and then lists seven that wear out the world. יש שבעה מיני פרושים שהם מכלה עולם ואלה הם השבעה שהם מבלה עולם. At any rate we see the sages of the Mishna did not count themselves as part of teh group of the Pharisees. It is common for Christians to put these two groups together, but that is not correct. Nor did Jesus say anything against the sages of the mishna nor they actual forerunners who were the scribes. Not the groups of religious fanatics called the Pharisees.
[There are however one or two places where it looks as though the prushim are joining with the scribes in being critical of Jesus. However in words of jesus himself you never find a negative word about the scibes. This goes to show what I have always been saying--that true Torah is only in the Litvak world. Not the general religious world which is insane.]
