I also don’t know who rav cohen was referring to when he said that there have been jews throughout time who believed in dead messiahs. He doesn’t name any. I’ve never seen a record of even a group of simple jews believing in a dead messiah, except the early christians.
As an adherent to messianic Lubavitch, can you please provide us with an example of a group of jews who thought that their leader was the messiah after his death? And don’t bring up the abarbanel’s general statement about techias hamaysim, etc… we’re talking about a community or a yeshiva, or some group.
As for rabbi Shechters “helevai, just let him come whoever he is,”
He said it after cautioning against overdoing messianic teachings, saying that talking about moshiach all of the time leads to praying to him.
What rabbi shechter was getting at was, I think, similar to what the brisker rov said about a kasha someone asked him…someone asked, how can we say “achakeh lo bechol yom…” When moshiach doesn’t come on Shabbos, because techum, etc..
The brisker rov said, let him come and answer your kasha.
The only difference is that the brisker rov was talking about normative moshiach, and rabbi shechter was talking about a deviation, a completely foreign idea which crept up in the 20th century and was the result of decades of constantly talking about moshiach, making it the focus of everything the community did. Do a Mitzvah, not to make Hashem happy and fulfill your purpose, bbut to bring moshiach! Then it became “do a Mitzvah because the rebbe said so,” etc…
I can’t answer for rabbi hershel schechter, but he’s not a gadol in the yeshiva world. He is a leading modern orthodox rabbi who generally has level headed halachik decisions and is a baki in shas and poskim, but he does not speak for me or the hundreds of thousands of bnei Torah worldwide who do not seek out his opinion about anything.