The King's Beloved Garden and Israel's Land of Israel

"When you come into the land" (Leviticus 19:23). This is what Scripture says (Jeremiah 3:19): "But I said: How shall I set you among the children, and give you a desirable land?" A parable of a king who had concubines, and he had many children, and he had one son from a certain matron, and he loved him exceedingly. The king gave to all the children of the concubines fields and vineyards, and afterward he gave to his son one orchard, from which all his provision (kelarin) came up. The son sent and said to his father: "To the children of the concubines you gave fields and vineyards, and to me you gave one orchard?" The king said to him: "By your life, all my provision (kelarin) came to me from this orchard; and because I love you more than your brothers, I gave it to you." So too the Holy One, blessed be He, created the nations of the world, as it is said (Song of Songs 6:8): "There are sixty queens" — these are the nations; "one is my dove" (ibid. 6:9) — this is the congregation of Israel. And the Holy One, blessed be He, apportioned to the nations of the world [fields and vineyards], as it is said (Deuteronomy 32:8): "When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance"; and He gave to Israel the Land of Israel, the provision-store (kelarin) of the Holy One, blessed be He: the offerings are from it, the showbread is from it, the firstfruits are from it, the omer is from it, all the good things in the world [are from it]. And all this — why? In order to make a distinction between the son of the matron and the children of the concubines, as it is said: "But I said: How shall I set you among the children" etc. Great love there was between the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel; and how did the enmity enter? The Holy One, blessed be He, said: "How shall I set (ashit) you" — and this expression is nothing but an expression of enmity, as it is said (Genesis 3:15): "And I will set (ashit) enmity."