Thanks sechel for bringing the thread back to its original (and IMHO much more interesting 🙂 ) topic.
You wrote: “if the rebbe wasn’t a gadal, who was?”
Um, now that’s a hard one. How about the Vizhniter Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch, Rav Meir Bergman, the Amshinover Rebbe etc etc etc (no particular order in the above)?
And I have a question. If the Lubavicher rebbe was atzmus melubash beguf, and thus all-powerful, why wasn’t he able to avoid having a stroke, and avoid dying?