Who Brings First Fruits and Who Recites Over Them

"The choicest first fruits of your soil" and so forth (Exodus 23:19). Why was this passage stated? Because it says, "And you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground"; from this I would know only fruits. From where do I learn that the liquids pressed from first fruits are also brought? Scripture teaches, saying "you shall bring" — from any source. And what is the difference between these and those? These bring and recite [the declaration], and those bring but do not recite. "Which you bring in from your land" — to exclude tenant farmers, lessees, occupiers of confiscated land (sicaricon), and robbers. "Which the LORD your God" — to exclude converts and slaves. "Gives you" — to exclude women, one of doubtful sex (tumtum), and one of double sex (androgynos). One might think it excludes them so that they neither recite nor bring; therefore Scripture teaches, "you shall bring" — from any source. What is the difference between these and those? These bring and recite, and those bring but do not recite. One who plants within his own ground but layers the branch into a private or public domain, or who layers from a private or public domain into his own, or who plants in his own and layers in his own while a private path and a public path run between — such a one does not bring, because it is said, "the choicest first fruits of your soil," until all the growth comes from your own soil. Tenant farmers, lessees, occupiers, and robbers do not bring, for the same reason: because it is said, "the choicest first fruits of your soil." First fruits are not brought before Shavuot (Atzeret). The people of Mount Tzevoim brought first fruits before Shavuot, and they were not accepted from them, because of what is written in the Torah (above, verse 16), "and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors." And from where do we learn that one bears responsibility for them until he brings them to the Temple Mount? As it is said, "the choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God."