@ARSo
a] There is no reason at all to believe RAMBAN should not have had RASHI . He Quotes RASHI countless times, al hatorah and on shas. I imagine it reaches into the hundreds if not more. Btw, RAMBAN lived 200 years after RASHI.
b]I don’t understand what you mean by the disputant ‘believing’ in RASHI.
He [or better- they] for sure did not believe in RASHI.
They believed in only one thing, victory.
They [meaning a massive apparatus consisting of catholic clergy, the superstitious commoners filled with hate and envy against their Jewish neighbors, and the state machinery combined] all wanted VICTORY and get rid of this thorn in their side.
They wanted mass conversion of the Jews or alternatively their forced exile.
Victory at all costs.
They even aimed to prove j’s messiahship FROM THE TALMUDS OWN WRITING .
If RAMBAN would disprove j’s messiahship, they would give anything to be able to refute RAMBAN’s words from the Talmud itself .
Now, think for a second, there is a clear gemara contradicting RAMBAN , which seems [to at least possibly] say that mashiach could be from the dead.
Isn’t that gmara a virtual g-dsend to RAMBAN’s opponents ?
And didn’t RAMBAN think about that gmara ?
Why would RAMBAN advance a proof , so easily and obviously refutable from a gmara ?
Answer is very clear : RAMBAN knew that his line of reasoning is not against that gmara.
Why not ???
c] Am amazed ARSo could even claim that the rebbi of the habad hasidim did not start the process.
Did he not accept and encourage petitions from his followers that he is mashiach ? For sure he did.
Wasn’t that the prophecy that he prophesied [like a full fledged navi, that mashiach is here – meaning himself ?
Mashiach self proclaiming his messiahship and telling all yehudim mashiach is here to take you out of galut.
If this is not a claim as a mashiach wannabe , then what is ?