To help people remember – because I myself am beginning to forget – I’d like to start a list of questions that those on our side have and that have not even been addressed by the other side, even by quoting their own sources.
In no particular order:
1. The whole concept of Nossi Hador is something that has been non-existent for centuries, and the Lubavicher rebbe reinvented it, applied it to his father-in-law and… to himself.
2. The fact that his father-in-law, and by succession he himself, was/is a Navi without any proof other than the Lubavicher rebbe’s claim that the Rayatz predicted things correctly. And not to be overlooked is the fact that the Lubavicher rebbe predicted that no Yid would be killed in the 1991 Gulf War, and there was a Yid who was killed R”L.
3. It is now almost thirty years since the Lubavicher rebbe died, and more than thirty years since he last said anything. and he said that Mashiach was coming bekarov mamash and that Mashiach is around the corner. Thirty years, with Rachmomo litzlan thousands and thousands of tragedies that would not have happened had Mashiach come, is not bekarov mamash or around the corner by anyone’s calculation. Anyone, that is, except for Lubavichers.
4. The fact that before 3 Tammuz ABSOLUTELY EVERY LUBAVICHER “believed” that Mashiach has to be someone who was alive, and then on 3 Tammuz that changed.
5. There is someone in each generation who is fit to be Mashiach. Until 3 Tammuz “generation” meant what generation is generally taken to mean. After 3 Tammuz it means from the time the Lubavicher rebbe beame rebbe until Mashiach comes, regardless of how many years pass.
6. The claim of him being Mashiach based on the Rambam even though not one of the criteria of the Rambam can be definitely assigned to him. And don’t forget that WE KNOW that he is descended from Dovid Hamelech because he said so himself!
7. The Lubavicher rebbe was “forced” into becoming a rebbe, even though in a number of books written by Lubavicher it shows otherwise.
8. The Lubavicher rebbe was anav mikol adam and never pushed himself to the forefront. What proof is there of that? I can think of many proofs – some have been mentioned in this thread – that show the opposite. One small indication, not mentioned until now, is that visiting gedolei Yisrael had to come to 770 to visit him, and “suffer” with all types of publicity surrounding their visit. Is there any case where he visited others. In the Torah world when one Rebbe visits another, the latter repays the visit. In Lubavich the visits were only in one direction.
9. His explanation al pi nigleh how a person who is mitzta’er that he CAN fall asleep is pottur from sleeping in the sukkah. It is totally preposterous to claim that this is a valid reason. I might as well say that if I’m mitzta’er that I enjoy eating in the sukkah I am pottur from eating in the sukkah!
10. My proof from the story of the sundial that the memoirs of the Rayatz are fictional and my assumption that the memoirs were never meant to be taken literally. By the way, it is not just the story of the sundial that is unbelievable. There are many others that, while not impossible, are extremely difficult to believe.
I think there are more, but the above is what I can come up with offhand. Please fill in whatever I have missed out.
And for the Lubavichers, how about you address these points directly without obfuscating (why do all these fancy words only come to me in the Coffee Room?)?