Another interpretation (of Lev. 19:23), “When you come into the land.” This text is related (to Jer. 3:19), “But I said how I would put you among the children and give you a desirable land!” The situation is comparable to a king who had concubines and had a lot of children. But he had one child by a certain matron, and he loved him to excess.
The king gave fields and vineyards to all the children of the concubines, and after that he gave his [beloved] son a garden from which all his food came.
The son sent and said to his father, “To the children of the concubines you have given fields and vineyards, but to me you have [only] given one garden?” The king said to him, “By your life, all my food (cellaria) comes to me from this garden; and because I love you more than your brothers, I have given it to you.” Similarly the Holy One, blessed be He, created the peoples of the world, just as it is stated (in Cant. 6:8), “There are sixty queens and eighty concubines and damsels without number,” these are the peoples; (vs. 9), “[Only ] one is my dove, my perfect one,” this is the congregation of Israel.
Now the Holy One, blessed be He, has distributed fields and vineyards to the peoples of the world, as stated (in Deut. 32:8), “When the Most High gave the gentiles an inheritance”; but to Israel He has given the Land of Israel, the larder (cellaria) of the Holy One, blessed be He. The offerings come from it; the shewbread comes from it; the first fruits come from it; the omer comes from it; all the good things in the world come from it.
Why all this? In order to make a distinction between the son of the matron and the children of the concubines, as stated (in Jer. 3:19), “But I said how I would put you among the children and give you a desirable land!” There was great love between the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel; so how did they bring in the enmity. The Holy One, blessed be He, said (ibid.), “how I would put (ashit) you,” and this language can only be the language of enmity.
Thus it is stated (in Gen. 3:15), “I will put (ashit) enmity between you and the woman.” Another interpretation (of Jer. 3:19), “how I would put (ashit) you.” The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, “I have spoken in your defense. How have you made Me bring charges against you?” Now this can only be the language of an accuser, as stated (concerning one guilty of negligence in Exod. 21:30), “If a ransom is put (rt.: shyt) upon him.”