Symbol of the pomegranate

Friends and I visited the “Holy Land” in Orlando, Florida, recently. One of the features was a look at the tent tabernacle and the significance of the structure, the rituals and even the dress of the priests.
It was mentioned that “pomegranates” were worn on the hems of the high priest. My very fertile imagination immediately saw pomegranates as I know them dangling on the hems of the priests.
My task. Then for the group was to find out the significance of the pomegranate in the bible.
The Priestly Robes

Exodus 28:33-34 (New International Version, ©2010)
33 Make pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn around the hem of the robe, with gold bells between them. 34 The gold bells and the pomegranates are to alternate around the hem of the robe.

The Temple’s Furnishings

13 King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,
14 whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was from Tyre and a skilled craftsman in bronze. Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.
15 He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference.
16 He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; each capital was five cubits high.
17 A network of interwoven chains adorned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital.
18 He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars. He did the same for each capital.
19 The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies, four cubits high.
20 On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around.
21 He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.
22 The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.

Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol of righteousness because it is said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot, or commandments, of the Torah. For this reason and others, it is customary to eat pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah

(Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה‎) (literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashana is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is described in the Torah as "Zikaron Terua" ("remembrance of the blowing of the horn") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate

Moreover, the pomegranate represents fruitfulness, knowledge, learning, and wisdom. http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/P/POMEGRANATE/

Numbers 13:23-33 (New International Version)
23 When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs.

There are other mentions of pomegranates, especially in the Songs of Solomon.
We can look at this fruit with renewed interest when we pass it in the supermarket. Even if we do not cultivate a taste for the fruit itself, we can appreciate this symbol of the continuity of our Lord.

May God Forever Be a Blessing in Your Life!!!