Pharisaism in the modern sense is synonymous with hypocrisy and hypocrisy. Not every person whose vocabulary contains this word knows the history of its origin. And it originates in Ancient Judea.
The sect of the Pharisees appeared in the 2nd century BC. Some Jews, disagreeing with some provisions of the doctrine of the doctrine of Judaism, created their own religious and philosophical schools. At first, the word “Pharisee,” literally meaning “separated,” was an offensive nickname. But over time, it also began to be pronounced with respect. The Pharisees saw the way to the salvation of their people through the veneration of all traditions, the observance of rituals passed down from generation to generation - the "oral law", thereby opposing themselves to the law written in the Torah.
By the time of Jesus Christ, it was a powerful sect, but the movement was already degenerating - the Pharisees became fanatics and casuists. Jesus discussed a lot with them. He denounced the Pharisees for preaching what they themselves did not fulfill, considering themselves righteous. In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus equates Pharisee with hypocrisy: "Meanwhile, when thousands of people gathered, so that they crowded one another, He began to say to His disciples first: beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." In fact, the modern understanding of Pharisaism is mainly based on these words. Ironically, Christianity, once a reproach to all hypocrites, in the Middle Ages became the dominant religion in Europe and itself acquired a pharisaic character, which resulted in the phenomenon of the Reformation, which denied formalism, outward piety and hypocrisy of the ministers of the Catholic Church.
Currently, pharisaism is a formal approach to morality, a negative personality trait, characterized by hypocrisy and hypocrisy. Its essence lies in the strict, but not true, but ostentatious, formal execution of the rules of morality. In the Pharisaic understanding, morality is reduced to blindly following a ritual that has already lost its true background. Pharisaism, as the personification of external morality, is opposed to internal morality and personal convictions.