Reply To: I Guess I’m Pulling for the “Chabad Media” Now?

“The Torah doesn’t work with “flat out” anything.”
Except for when it talks about Yaakov being dead?

“We see from the Torah that Hashem created the world. He existed before He created the universe. The universe is physical matter and since He existed before physical matter was created, Hashem is not a physical being.”
Fine, then what do you do with the pasukim that personify Hashem? You have a stira just like you do with the Yaakov lo mes, but he’s buried situation. The difference here is that everyone accepts that Hashem is not a physical being, while the Yaakov lo mes thing is a machlokes.

“are so riled up about me saying that Rashi saying “Yaakov lo mes” means that Rashi is saying that Yaacov himself, or Yaacov’s guf, is alive in a spiritual capacity.”
That isn’t what you’ve been saying. You seem to be slowly and subtly backing off of the extremeness of your original statements, which is good.

“However, when Menachem Shmei misinterpreted what the Gemorah in Taanis is saying, misinterpreted many meforshim, you have no issue with that.”
I literally have no idea what you’re talking about. If he intentionally misinterpreted a Gemara, then that’s wrong also. As a non-Lubavitcher, I do think they do that when bringing “proofs” that Moshiach can come from the dead. However, my stake in this argument has never had anything to do with Chabad. I never really cared about that. I just came here to tell you that the way you were talking about Rashi’s pshat was extremely unsettling and was hurting your case more than it was helping. Are you asking why I’m not telling Menachem Shmei that he sounds unusual or outlandish in his arguments? Simple, because in his community he isn’t. It’s not my place to tell him how or how not to be a Lubavitcher. Within the context of his community, he seems very mainstream and normal.

“maybe because the person who gives his daf yomi shuir is a big talmud chuchem and teaches taanus 5b very well, but he chuckled when I asked him if he believes that Yaacov Avinu is physically alive in his kever.”
There are a lot of “out-there” midrashim/agadata that would probably get a chuckle if you brought up the prospect of actually believing in them literally in casual conversation. Look, there are plenty of examples where Rashi’s shittah is not the accepted one (even more often in gemara), but he still said what he said. The fact that people today don’t “believe” them or posken like them in cases of halachah does not mean anyone is pretending Rashi didn’t say them. I would actually argue that you seem MORE insistent on blindly accepting Rashi than we are. That’s why you feel the need to reinterpret what he says so that you can say, “see, look, Rashi and I agree on everything as long as you look at it just right.”