Is the Rebbe a kind of deity?

There is no prohibition on claiming that a person is the Messiah. This is the phenomenon of false messiahship (there is a work site here on my daughter’s website that deals with this in detail). There is also no prohibition on claiming that a person who is dead is alive. This is simply stupidity, and stupidity is not a prohibition. Although the Maimonides interprets the prohibitions of the Book of Revelation as prohibitions on being stupid, this is not the simple truth. Chabad is indeed a sect for all intents and purposes. They have a great many rights, and it is still a sect. But there are other parts of Judaism that are sects (like Gur or Breslav, for example). Rabbi Schach has already said that Chabad is the sect closest to Judaism. Maybe there should be a division between messianics and non-messians, but I’m not even sure about that.