Why does the Torah first refer to a person who murdered by accident in the third person, saying, “G-d caused it to happen to him,” and immediately afterward address the person directly, saying, “I shall provide you a place”?
In doing so, the Torah hints that to transgress G-d’s will even inadvertently is entirely foreign to a Jew. Therefore, even when the Torah addresses the transgressor directly, it does not refer to his sin as something that “you did,” but as something that “G-d caused to happen to him”—to someone absent, not your natural self. As Chassidus explains, a Jew’s true identity is his G-dly soul, to whom sin is utterly unthinkable. It is only due to our “other” identity, the animal soul, that it is possible for a Jew to be drawn to sin.
Nevertheless, a person’s sins not only drag his animal soul even lower, they harm his G-dly soul’s sensitivity and conscious relationship with G-d as well. The end of the verse therefore states, “I shall provide you—the G-dly soul—a place to which he can flee,” i.e., I will provide you an opportunity for repentance and repair, through which you elevate and repair your animal soul, too.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 9, p. 302
