Anyusername: “again, you’re not proving to me that what im saying is against pshat you’re just basing it on the fact that im learning it different than you, which is fine – we both have an opinion. but to say that it is against pshat is wrong to say”
NO! NO! NO! I am saying that if you say that the gemoro in Sanhedrin, and the Rashi there, allows you to say that any person OTHER THAN DONIEL who has died is moshiach, you don’t know how to translate. We’re not talking about a machlokes. We are talking about you not listening to what Rashi is saying, either intentionally or because you don’t know how to translate.
I’ll do it for you here (sorry to all those who can translate Rashi on their own for the length of this post), and if you still have trouble getting it maybe you can get someone to help you:
אי מן חייא הוא כגון רבינו הקדוש
[Quote from the Gemoro:] If he is from the living, like Rabbeinu Hakadosh
אם משיח מאותן שחיים עכשיו
[Rashi’s explanation:] If moshiach is of those that are currently alive
ודאי היינו רבינו הקדוש
he is certainly Rabbeinu Hakadosh
דסובל תחלואים וחסיד גמור הוה כדאמרינן בבבא מציעא (פה א)
who suffers illnesses, and he was a complete chossid, as we say in Bovo Metzia 85a.
ואם היה מאותן שמתו כבר
And if he was from those who have already died
היה דניאל איש חמודות
it was Doniel Ish Chamudos
שנדון ביסורין בגוב אריות וחסיד גמור היה
who was judged with tribulations in the lions’ den, and he was a complete chossid.
והאי כגון לאו דווקא
[Rashi now clarifies how, according to this explanation, the Gemoro uses the term “כגון”, which means “like”, when the Gemoro is in fact referring to two specific people and not anyone “like” them:] This “כגון” is not being used in a precise manner.
לישנא אחרינא
Another explanation [of the Gemoro]
כגון רבינו הקדוש
“Like Rabbeinu Hakadosh”
כלומר אם יש דוגמתו בחיים היינו רבינו הקדוש
Meaning to say, if there is a similarity to moshiach among the living [i.e. if there is someone alive (when the statement was made) to whom moshiach can be compared] it is Rabbeinu Hakadosh.
ואם דוגמא הוא למתים היינו כגון דניאל איש חמודות
And if moshiach is to be compared to someone dead, then he is like Doniel Ish Chamudos.
Now you have two choices:
1. Show me where and how I have mistranslated, or failing that
2. Show me how saying anyone who has died other than Doniel can be moshiach fits in with that Rashi, as you said it does.