- Using shemittah produce for the עומר, rather than last year's crop
A Mishnah states: שומרי ספיחין בשביעית – the watchmen of the aftergrowths of [shemittah] who guard the barley for the עומר, נוטלין שכרן מתרומת הלשכה – take their pay from funds removed from the treasury chamber (which was designated for קרבנות ציבור). Rami bar Chama asked Rav Chisda how the עומר, which is completely burned, could be brought from shemittah produce, about which the Torah says "לאכלה" – it is yours for eating, ולא לשריפה – but not for burning!? Rav Chisda replied: רחמנא אמר לך לדורותיכם – The Torah says the עומר is an eternal decree for your generations, ואת אמרת תיבטל – and you say it should be canceled during shemittah?! Rami bar Chama explained that he meant they should use barley from the previous year. The Gemara answers that כרמל תקריב – fresh kernels you shall offer implies they must be fresh at the time of offering, which last year’s crop is not. Rebbe Yochanan also made this derashah, but Rebbe Elazar darshened "ראשית קצירך" – the first of your harvest, to require the עומר to be brought from the first of the new crop’s harvest, ולא סוף קצירך – and not from the end of the previous year’s harvest. A Baraisa disproves Rebbe Yochanan’s derashah.
- ביכורים may not be brought from low-quality produce, machlokes if one did
A Mishnah teaches that ביכורים may only be brought from the שבעת המינים. It may not be brought מתמרים שבהרים – from dates of the mountains, nor מפירות שבעמקים – from grain of the valley, both of which are of inferior quality. עולא says: אם הביא לא קידש – if one brought ביכורים from such produce, he did not sanctify them, and his designation is ineffective. Below, the Gemara quotes Rebbe Yochanan ruling like עולא, but Reish Lakish says: אם הביא קדש – if one brought such produce, he did sanctify it; נעשה ככחוש בקדשים – it becomes like a lean animal among korbanos, that although a korban must be brought from one’s choicest animals, if he designated an inferior animal as a korban, it is effective. Rebbe Elazar explains Rebbe Yochanan’s opinion: the passuk says ביכורים should be brought "מראשית" – “from” the first, ולא כל ראשית – but not all the first, and "מארצך" – “from” your land, ולא כל ארצך – but not all your land, implying that inferior produce is completely disqualified from ביכורים. A Baraisa supports Reish Lakish’s opinion, and Rebbe Yochanan concedes that it is a machlokes Tannaim.
- שתי הלחם precedes all menachos and ביכורים to be brought from the new crop
A Baraisa discussing the שתי הלחם of Shavuos darshens: "קרבן ראשית" – a first-fruit offering, implying שתהא ראשית לכל המנחות – that it should be first to all the menachos from the new crop. Not only do the שתי הלחם precede all menachos of wheat, but they even precede all menachos made of barley, based on an extra "חדשה". They even precede ביכורים, because the passuk says וחג שבעות תעשה לך בכורי קציר חטים – and you shall make for yourself the festival of weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Another passuk teaches that they also precede ביכורים of barley. The Baraisa proceeds to darshen that the שתי הלחם not only precede ביכורים from grains which were planted, but even from those which grew on their own. They also precede שבגג ושבחורבה ושבעציץ ושבספינה – those which grew on a roof, in a ruin, in a flowerpot, or on a boat, which are of inferior quality, because the passuk says בכורי כל אשר בארצם – the first fruits of everything that is in their land. Finally, a gezeirah shavah teaches that the שתי הלחם also precede נסכים and ביכורים from fruits of the tree.