Continued:
So in nun aleph, nun beis, when this Moshiach excitement was going on, along with the hints, every chossid, from what I hear, expected the Rebbe to reveal himself as Moshiach and lead all Yidden to eretz Yisrael.
Halfway through nun beis- 1992, the Rebbe had a stroke. After the stroke, the chassidim thought this must be an obstacle we must go through before Moshiach is revealed, so they kept up their belief and hope in the Rebbe’s words. They also would quite often burst into the song of Yechi, addressing the Rebbe as Moshiach and the Rebbe would nod his head encouraging the song. Up until gimmel tammuz, nun daled -94, no one would dare even say that maybe the Rebbe won’t get better…
Until one day. Gimmel tammuz hit us. And there was no sicha of the Rebbe to explain what happened. (Some chassidim see a sicha said on gimmel tammuz years earlier to address this situation.)
Here for the first time there was a split.
Some chassidim said Look things didn’t work out according to plan, so that’s it. The games up and the Rebbe was nistalek and there must be some explanation for this but that’s it, we’re orphaned from our Rebbe and we’ll try to live by his teachings and continue in his party and keep his memory alive. These people will speak of the Rebbe in past tense etc.