"If a man commit a sin whose judgment is death, and is put to death…you shall hang him on a tree." (Deut. 21:22)

In his eulogy for Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (known by the acronym, the "Ramak"), the Arizal interpreted this verse as follows:
"If a man commit a sin…": If a person lacks (the word for "sin" also means "lacks")…
"…whose judgment is death…: any reason that he should die, being righteous and void of any sin…
"…and is put to death…": yet he dies nonetheless…
"…hang him on a tree.": ascribe ("hang") this only to the fact that all people must die as a result of Adam's sin of eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. (Ya'arot Devash 2,126c)

The Ramak was devoted to the study and dissemination of the inner dimension of the Torah…

The Talmud also mentions four individuals who led sinless lives and died only because of "the venom of the primordial snake" (Shabbat 55b). The difference between the Talmud's statement and the Arizal's is one of degree. The Talmud implies that the individuals it mentions, though sinless, could not shake the self-orientation that had been injected into humanity by the primordial snake (Torah Or, end of Mishpatim).

[Note: four individuals… These were: Benjamin, the son of Jacob; Amram, the father of Moses; Jesse, the father of David, and Chileab, the son of David.]

The Arizal implies that the Ramak was clean even of this blemish. This was possible because the Ramak was devoted to the study and dissemination of the inner dimension of the Torah, which reveals the inner dimension of the Jew's soul. This dimension of the Jew is always pure and cannot be defiled by sin; when it is revealed, even the self-orientation we inherit from the primordial snake is overcome. Death was part of Creation from the beginning…

The fact that the Ramak did die nonetheless can therefore be attributed only to the fact that G‑d decreed that all men should die. As we have explained, death was part of Creation from the beginning - but it only became activated when G‑d "arranged" for Adam to sin by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

The lesson for us in this is clear: By studying and spreading the inner dimension of the Torah, we can reveal the inner dimension of our own souls and those of others. This neutralizes the effect of sin, and therefore nullifies the result of sin: exile and death. By disseminating the mystical dimension of Torah, we usher in the Messianic redemption and the subsequent resurrection of the dead.

Adapted from Likutei Sichot, vol. 24, pp. 132-136
© 2001 Chabad of California/www.LAchumash.org