289) It is written, “A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will not lack a thing.” Why the double “in”? The Creator divided all the nations and the lands into appointees, emissaries. But there is no angel that rules over the land of Israel, nor any other appointee, but only the Creator Himself. For this reason, He brought the people that none rules but the Creator to the land that none rules but the Creator.
290) In the beginning, the Creator gives nourishment to the land of Israel, and afterwards to the whole world. It turns out that all the other idol worshiping nations receive with scarcity and the land of Israel does not. Rather, the land of Israel is nourished first, and then the rest of the world is nourished from the remains.
291) This is why it is written, “A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity,” but abundantly, in complete fullness. You will eat in it, and nowhere else. “In it” indicates the sanctity of the land where there is the upper faith, where there is the upper blessing and nowhere else. This is why it writes two times, “in which,” in the verse, to indicate all that was said.
292) It is written, “Like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.” He asks, thus far, we still do not know from the text if the land of Egypt is as the garden of the Lord, if the land of Sodom is as the garden of the Lord, and if the garden of the Lord is the Garden of Eden. Indeed, “Like the garden of the Lord” is the Garden of Eden, where there is fulfillment and enjoyment for all. But so was Sodom and so was Egypt. As one does not need to water the garden of the Lord, so was Egypt—none had to water it because the Nile River would rise and water the whole of the land of Egypt.
293) It is written, “And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem, to bow before the King, the Lord of Hosts, there will be no rain on them.” This is their punishment, that they are denied the rain.
It is written, “If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter,” and not “on them.” It does not write here, “there will be no rain on them,” since it did not rain in Egypt and they did not need it. Instead, their punishment is as was written, “It will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations,” since the Egyptians have no need for rain. Sodom, too, was as the garden of the Lord, containing all the delights in the world. This is why they did not wish for other people to delight themselves in it and were unwelcoming.
294) The people of Sodom themselves were wicked; it is not because of their good land that they did not wish to give alms. Every person who is unkind toward the poor is not worthy of existing in the world. Moreover, he has no life in the next world. And anyone who is kind toward the poor is worthy of existing in the world and the world will exist through him, and he has life and longevity for the next world.