Yaakov Yosef of Polonnoye - Postscript

The author of the Encyclopedia Judaica article is Moshe Halamish. I googled him to try to find on-line something else he has published, in order to gauge his attitude towards Hassidut. I found this article about Shneur Zalman of Liadi. I see no indication there that Prof. Halamish is hostile to Hassidut. So maybe his Encyclopedia Judaica article really is an accurate description of Yaakov Yosef's doctrine of the zaddik. That implies that Yaakov Yosef, and by implication also the Ba'al Shem Tov, thought that the cult of the zaddik is a good thing, or at least a necessary evil for confronting the crisis in 18th century Eastern European Judaism. I will be דן לכף זכות and posit that they didn't realize how easy it is for a charismatic psychopath like Eliezer Berland to pass himself off as a zaddik.