Over Pesach I heard this story directly from the Levi.
He had travelled to receive Brachos from the Lubavitcher Rebbe ז’ל and to bring his son around the time of his Bar Mitzvah. He is a Levi and was called up as a Levi in 770. The next Aliyah, Shlishi, went to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe faltered and instead of starting with ברכו he began the ברכה of אשר בחר בנו. Nobody said anything to correct or interrupt the ברכה. At the end of the Aliyah, after the Rebbe said the second ברכה of אשר נתן לנו, he then said ברכו. Of course, one can say ברכו at any time and have ten people answering.
Upon returning to Melbourne, the Levi mentioned this story to members of the Chabad Kollel. The reaction was
“You’ve misunderstood. The Rebbe did it on purpose. He wanted to teach people what the Halacha was”
Unfortunately, these were also very high quality אבריכים from the USA (from several years ago). It’s somewhat sad that they couldn’t see the Rebbe as a human being, as well as a great צדיק and מנהיג ישראל (or נשיא)
pitputim 
the greatest golus for we Lubavitchers and Yiddishkeit at the present moment is downstairs in 770.
An enormous darkness has descended on such a Holy Place.
May HaShem deliver us from the insanity.
The Rebbe zy”a must be suffering the pain of witnessing such a bilbul.
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Hey Isaac, I was educated in the same way. We were taught that the Rebbe can’t make mistakes, even trivial ones like you mentioned. I had often struggled with that concept. Would it diminish my belief or appreciation for the Rebbe if it was indeed a mistake? Absolutely not.
However there is a rationale in saying that the mistakes of a Rebbe are not the same mistakes as you and me (well maybe not you ;-), and from those mistakes we can learn.
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Mendy,
The question is not whether they are the same as you or I. Clearly there is no comparison between us and lofty individuals.
The question is whether such things are seen as intentional or a simple mistake that any human being can make.
If it is the former, then you are seemingly contradicting אדם אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא but more to the point (in case you claim he was like eg ישי) what is the rationale for doing so? Does it serve a positive purpose? What is this purpose? Is it mandated? If so, where and why?
Does it also contribute to the likelihood of חס ושלום a pseudo-deification amongst כסילים?
Why is it that when someone used to come back from 770, the older chassidim were more interested in hearing about the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s health situation, whilst the younger upstarts were only interested in relaying מופתים?
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