מוסר אויף שמות 21:13

I have found a beautiful commentary [concerning this] amongst the writings of the Arizal. We must understand why Moses bothered to set aside these three cities, seeing they could not perform their function until the other three cities of refuge on the West Bank of the Jordan had been set aside as well (Numbers 35,13; compare Makkot 9). When we understand the Arizal's commentary on the problem of the cities of refuge, we will also understand the relevance of the [adjacent] verse, "And this is the Torah which Moses placed before the children of Israel" (Deuteronomy 4,44), to Moses setting aside the three cities of refuge [which were to be on the East Bank of the Jordan]. The Arizal sees the secret understanding of Moses' setting these cities aside as an attempt at rehabilitation for when he had committed manslaughter and had taken it upon himself to slay the Egyptian [who had tortured a Jew] (Exodus 2,12) before his time. He had considered this killing in the category of a murder inadvertently committed because he had felt at the time that he was performing a מצוה by doing so. The first letters of the words הירדן מזרחה שמה, which describe what Moses did, form the acronym משה. The following words, אשר ירצח את רעהו, are also an allusion to Moses. [We have already described that Moses was the reincarnation of Abel.] This is also alluded to in Exodus 2,11, when the Torah describes Moses as observing an Egyptian man: מכה איש עברי מאחיו, "torturing a Jewish man, one of his brothers." The Torah hints that the Egyptian was a former brother of Moses, i.e., a reincarnation of Cain. In this instance, the evil that had been part of Cain's character had resurfaced in the character of this Egyptian. The נפש of Cain, i.e. his lowest spiritual part, was reincarnated in the body of this Egyptian, whereas Cain's רוח, the superior part of his soul, was re-incarnated in the body of Yitro. The highest part of Cain's soul, i.e. the נשמה, was re-incarnated in the body of Korach. But Korach made his own mistake of quarreling with Moses [which resulted in his גלגול failing to achieve its ultimate purpose]. Yitro was of mixed components. When he purged the evil, he converted to Judaism. At the end of the paragraph dealing with the cities of refuge, the Torah writes: וזאת התורה אשר שם משה, And this is the Torah which Moses placed. This means that Moses determined the need to set aside these three cities of refuge at this time for his own sake.