CS: “For example, if that were the case, then it would be impossible to apply the anticipating moshiach every day
in practice, because if his coming is contingent on Eliyahu hanavi announcing it three days earlier, then he can’t come today as there was no announcement two days ago….”
This is another assumption based on (wilful?) mistranslations.
אחכה לו בכל יום שיבוא does NOT mean that I expect him every day. It means I will wait for him every day. Imagine a 12 year-old boy waiting for his bar mitzvah. Every day he looks at the calendar and sees how long there still is to go, so every day he is eagerly waiting for his bar mitzvah, but he does NOT anticipate his bar mitzvah happening before he turns 13. So too with Mashiach. We (are expected to) wait eagerly for his coming every day, but we know that he may not come today.
I believe (I have searched and haven’t been able to find it, but I clearly remember seeing it somewhere) that the Lubavicher rebbe referred to as marah shchorah – morose and depressed – anyone who explained it the way I have explained it above. But I fully believe (אני מאמין באמונה שלימה 🙂 ) that my translation/explanation is the correct one notwithstanding the Lubavicher rebbe’s objections.
Similarly, לישעותך קוינו כל היום does not mean that we expect the yeshuah today. It means we hope for it. And by the way, that may not even be directly referring to the revelation of Mashiach, rather than to the beginning of the establishment of Malchus Beis David – את צמח דוד עבדך מהרה תצמיח.
There is thus no reason at all to suggest that when Chazal tell us that Eliyahu Hanavi will come three days before Mashiach that they did not mean and believe it fully.