(14) Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: (15) You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread [chag ha’matzot] —eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you—at the set time in the month of the spring, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed;

(16) and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field;

and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field.

(17) Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, GOD.

(1) When you enter the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, (2) you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the ETERNAL your God will choose to establish the divine name. (3) You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, “I acknowledge this day before the ETERNAL your God that I have entered the land that GOD swore to our fathers to assign us.” (4) The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the ETERNAL your God. (5) You shall then recite as follows before the ETERNAL your God: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. (6) The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. (7) We cried to the ETERNAL, the God of our ancestors, and the ETERNAL heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. (8) GOD freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents, (9) bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (10) And so I now bring the first fruits of the soil that You, O ETERNAL One, have given me.”
You shall leave the basket before the ETERNAL your God and bow low before the ETERNAL your God. (11) And you shall enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the ETERNAL your God has bestowed upon you and your household.

(7) For the ETERNAL your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; (8) a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey;

(2)At four times of the year the world is judged: On Passover judgment is passed concerning grain; on Atzeret [Shavuot] concerning fruits that grow on a tree; on Rosh HaShana, all creatures pass before Him like sheep [benei maron], as it is stated: “He Who fashions their hearts alike, Who considers all their deeds” (Psalms 33:15); and on the festival of Sukkot they are judged concerning water, i.e., the rainfall of the coming year.

(10) These bring and recite: [The formula given in Deut 26]: from Atzeret [Shavuot] until the Festival [of Sukkot], from the seven species, from fruit grown on the mountains, or dates grown in the valleys, from oil-olives, and from [produce] from the other side of the Jordan. Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: one does not bring [bikkurim] from transjordania, since that is not a land flowing with milk and honey.

(17) Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said: Where there is no Torah, there is no right conduct; where there is no right conduct, there is no Torah. Where there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; where there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom. Where there is no understanding, there is no knowledge; where there is no knowledge, there is no understanding. Where there is no bread, there is no Torah; where there is no Torah, there is no bread. He used to say: one whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, to what may he be compared? To a tree whose branches are numerous but whose roots are few, so that when the wind comes, it uproots it and overturns it, as it is said, “He shall be like a bush in the desert, which does not sense the coming of good. It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness, in a barren land without inhabitant” (Jeremiah 17:6). But one whose deeds exceed his wisdom, to what may he be compared? To a tree whose branches are few but roots are many, so that even if all the winds in the world come and blow upon it, they cannot move it out of its place, as it is said, “He shall be like a tree planted by waters, sending forth its roots by a stream. It does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh. It has no care in a year of drought; it does not cease to yield fruit” (ibid, 17:8).

(1) These are the things that have no definite quantity: The corners [of the field]. First-fruits; [The offerings brought] on appearing [at the Temple on the three pilgrimage festivals]. The performance of righteous deeds; And the study of the torah. The following are the things for which a man enjoys the fruits in this world while the principal remains for him in the world to come: Honoring one’s father and mother; The performance of righteous deeds; And the making of peace between a person and his friend; And the study of the torah is equal to them all.