The Pharisees back in the day of Christ, were a sect of the Jewish religion, that were especially devoted to strict observance of religious law, believing that their interpretation was the only true rightful way to show correct and pious devotion to their God. Many of us think of Jesus the Christ, as being loving, considerate, and kind, which indeed He was, but Christ directed some of his most potent criticisms at the Pharisees, not really in the hope that such wisdom from Him, would help to correct them, but rather as a counterpoint to what true religious faith was supposed to represent and be about.
The Pharisees, took religious law, and made it into a formula, in which, they utilized their respected community religious standing of superior "knowledge" to manipulate the population in such a respect, that the word of the Pharisees of what is proper and improper, what is right and what is wrong, what foods could be eaten and to whom one could eat with, the amount of money that needed to be gifted to the church temple, and the associations of people with each other, of which some were approved of, and some were considered to be inappropriate, was essentially the religious law of the land, and those that followed such dictates to the letter as given by the Pharisees were accorded respect and those that did not were considered to be in violation of their faith.
In point of fact, it is always a great danger, when anyone, takes it upon themselves to speak in the voice of God, and especially unfortunate when disciples or adherents to a particular religious faith or sect, takes such an interpretation as gospel, without giving such careful, contemplated thought. No doubt, in an era in which the population as a whole, was illiterate, and their version of mass media being often controlled by governmental or religious authorities, common people did not have ready access to debate or carefully consider all doctrine, so that, often they accepted such, from men that dressed the part, as respectful and pious representatives, that they were therefore seen as legitimate authorities in all religious matters.
This then meant that Pharisees were in positions of great power, for one's soul, for one's eternal destiny, and of doing right, is something that people of that age, took seriously. Yet, rather than Pharisees being of service to the communicants, too often, they used their position in order to empower themselves more and thereby to dominant their constituents. This meant in effect, than rather than being of real aid and hope for their people, Pharisees took advantage of their influence to manipulate those in their throes who saw them as almost God-appointed representatives on earth.
Jesus saw the Pharisees for what they really were, with their outside appearance being one of cleanliness, but their character full of greed, wickedness, deception, and hypocrisy, and thereby Jesus did not mince his words when confronting the Pharisees, which, when attacked by the penetrating depth of the truth of our Savior, rather than repenting of their wicked and deceitful ways, saw to do what they could to undercut and to undermine Christ's message.
Today, in this world, Pharisees are still amongst us, they are all those that take positions of authority, not to serve their fellow man, but to be served by those men; not to enact positive influence for the benefit of the people as well as their communities, but instead to convince those people to give up their hard earn money and to freely labor for those in authority, with the conditioned promised that by doing so, this will bring them some merited reward, eternal or not, which in fact, serves to enrich that authority in the here and now, while providing nothing of substance for those making such a sacrifice. All those that abuse their positions of power in service to themselves, while taking from and deceiving others, are the hypocrites of our age, for their true character is actually dirty, corrupt, diseased, wicked and fraudulent.