Here is something else that has bothered me since I first heard it many years ago and it or its relative has been used often in this thread.
“The Gemora says that a dead person can be Moshiach. So what’s wrong with saying that the rebbe can be Moshiach?”
The Gemora does NOT say that a dead person can be Moshiach. The gemora (Sanhedrin 98b) says that “if he [Moshiach} is from the dead, it is Doniel”. Rashi gives two possible explanations:
1. If Moshiach was someone who has died, it was Doniel (note the past tense “was”).
2. if you want to find someone among those who have already died who Moshiach will resemble, it is Doniel, i.e. Moshiach is someone ALIVE who will be similar to the way Doniel was in his lifetime.
For anyone to say that that Gemoro allows us to say that ploni is Moshiach even though he died is the equivalent of saying tht the gemaro says there are 39 Ovos Melochos so I am justified in saying there are another few. If it was a dead person it was Doniel – not the Lubaitcher rebbe!
The relative to that statement is “the Gemoro says Yaacov Ovinu lo meis, so I can say the rebbe didn’t die either.”
Same objection as the first.
I hope all the close-minded Litvishe out thre can understand this difficult piece of logic 🙂