The holiday of Rosh Hashanah is known for its many customs, especially the “simanim“. This custom comes from the Talmud (Horiyot 12a) and consists of eating various foods whose names or characteristics have a positive connotation. A short prayer is also recited, asking Hashem to realize this positive association in the coming year.
The pomegranate is also eaten in this context. This custom is first mentioned in the writings of the Gaonim (10th century). Rabbi David Abudraham (14th century) also mentions it and adds the short prayer that should be said: “Yehi razon … scheyirbu zechuyoteinu ke´rimon” (“May it be Your will … that our merits multiply like the seeds of the pomegranate”).
Interestingly Rabbi Moshe Sofer (18th century) and Rabbi Meir Leibush Wisser (known as the “Malbim”, 19th century) write that the pomegranate contains 613 seeds – the number of commandments and prohibitions in Judaism. A student at Columbia University, Alexander Haubold, conducted an experiment and counted over 200 pomegranates (!). His result was that a pomegranate contains between 165 and 1370 seeds, but the average is exactly 613 seeds!
The comparison of the pomegranate to mitzvot is based on a Talmudic commentary (Eiruvin 19a) on the verse in Shir HaShirim (Chapter 4, Verse 3) “thy cheek is like a slice of a pomegranate within thy locks” – Even the “empty people” [people of a low spiritual level] of the Jewish people are full of mitzvot like a pomegranate.
If the pomegranate in the Talmud symbolizes the number of mitzvot of the “empty” people, why do we ask Hashem on Rosh Hashanah that our merits be as numerous as the seeds of a pomegranate?
One answer is that “empty” people accumulate mitzvot like a pomegranate during their lifetime, while we ask Hashem that we be able to accomplish this amount of mitzvot in one year (Pri Chadash 583:2).
Another possibility is that while even the lowest people are filled with mitzvot, they still have many more averot, and we ask to be filled with more zechuyot than averot (Elef Hamagen 583:16).
(The simplest answer is that Shir HaShirim speaks of half a pomegranate, while on Rosh HaShanah we ask that our merits be as numerous as the seeds of a whole pomegranate, and in fact in the Chida’s additions to Sefer Chassidim the wording of the Yehi Razon is “May we increase mitzvot like a whole pomegranate”).
Rav Shlomo Wolbe zt”l used to ask how can the Talmud call them empty when they are filled with numerous mitzvos?
He replied that a person can perform countless mitzvot, but if he does them without concentration and proper thought, the mitzvot have no effect on him and he remains empty…
May Hashem help us to be filled with zechuyot like a whole pomergranate and may they fill us with holiness and make us holier people!
