Commentary for Avodah Zarah 58:8

Rabbi Joshua does not seem to have an answer to this response of Rabbi Ishmael’s and therefore he distracts him to a different topic, this dealing with the gender of the speaker in the second verse of Song of Songs. The verse states “for your love is more delightful than wine”. “Your love” can either be masculine or feminine. The only difference in the Hebrew is the vocalization; the consonants are exactly the same. Rabbi Ishmael responds that he vocalizes it to be a masculine pronoun. In other words the speaker is feminine and she is speaking to a male. Rabbi Joshua points out that this is surely wrong for the word “your ointments” is masculine. Although this word too can be vocalized to be feminine, the fact that the end of the verse refers to maidens loving him proves that the one being spoken to is male.
Scholars have attempted to connect the meaning of this section with the previous topic of cheese. The “masculine” version of the verse gives priority to the written Torah, which would prohibit cheese only if it uses non-kosher ingredients, such as nevelah. R. Joshua is arguing that if cheese is prohibited, it must be prohibited on these grounds. The feminine version of the verse prioritizes the oral Torah, that created by the rabbis. Thus R. Ishmael believes that non-Jewish cheese is prohibited by rabbinic decree, like wine, as a means to keep Jews and non-Jews apart.