The Difference

It could be that if a person is really hooked into the insight and holiness that can come from really seeing what is special about a tzadick that it's natural for him see that person as moshiach for right now that person is a kind of moshiach for him. The difference between Chabad and the talmidim listed in that Gemara (San. 98b) is that for one the Chabad moshiach is no longer alive. so we have to resort to other obscure gemaras to someone make it acceptable for moshiach to come from the dead. So we have layers of mental gymnastics going here. But I can live with all that. What's hard to accept is the immodesty of Chabad in this matter. I live in Israel and the Rebbe's picture with the words moshaich appear in acts of vandalism all over the country. I'm talking about stickers plastered on signs on every road, on bus stops, on walls. In addition to breaking the law here, it's so immodest, so cheap, so tawdry. If you humbly and quietly believed Rebbe was moshiach that would be one thing. But Chabad shoves it in everyone's face. And according to Steinsoltz this is in violation of the Rebbe's desires. He said all you are going to accomplish is turning people away from Chassidis. And that surely is the case.