Pomegranate have 613 seeds??? True of False????

I was told every pomegranate has exactly 613 seeds. Is this true? Has anyone heard this?
Lucy

If you include Punica granatum nana (Russian or Mini Pomegranate) I'd say no. The fruit are much smaller. Otherwise someone has too much time on their hands and likes Pomegranates too much. :-)

Rimonim is the Hebrew word for pomegranates. The pomegranate is notable for its beautiful red flowers, shapely fruit, sweet flavor and its prodigious number of seeds.

In the bible, the pomegranate is mentioned as one of the seven species emblematic of Israel's agricultural fertility. When the Israelite spies surveyed Canaan they brought back pomegranates to Moses as proof of the land's abundance. In the Song of Songs, the pomegranate figures prominently in the imagery of love and sensuality and its color is associated with fire and passion.

According to the midrash, there are exactly 613 seeds within the pomegranate, corresponding to the number of mitzvot prescribed in the torah. Israel is compared to a pomegranate, as full of good deeds as this fruit is of seeds.

The above is adapted from The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols by Ellen Frankel and Betsy Platkin Teutsch

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I don't know if anyone EVER had that much time on their hands! LOL!

Thank you Kay too! I found that it is "traditional" in Judaism for the Promegranate to have 613 seeds for the reasons you mentioned (613 commandments of the Lord). Tradition is not necessarily always fact, which is why I HAD to ask some gardeners (I don't have any pomegranates.............nor time to count their seeds :o).

I also found it's the fruit eaten at Rosh Hashanna, which I'm not familiar with. The pomegranate was also mandated by God to be embroidered at the hem of the high priest's robe, I believe.

Thank you both for the input!!!!!!

Lucy

Nope not every one has 613, but many have. Call me weird, but I had to find out one day and counted the seeds in several fruits. Wanted to try and sprout some pomegranates to see if I coudl grow them, so it was not like I had nothign better to do, but figured, what the heck since I was getting and cleaning seeds, I might as well.

Findings...

529.... 613...... 604...... 615.... 613....

They were all pretty close in size, but each one still a bit different.

Thanks, Starlight.
You saved me some counting - I've still got a few small, end-of-the-season fruits from my trees in AL in the fridge - I was gonna dismantle a couple and count - I just have the feeling that these smaller ones - half the size of those that set early in the season - would have fewer seeds than a large, well-developed fruit, though the arils are still of comparable size.
Now, I can just eat them, without having to worry about counting.

Starlight, my Bible study forum thanks you! :o)
Lucy

Hi Lucky - I think you should count one of those smaller ones - I'll be very surprised if you don't get a considerably lower total. Anything to help nail this 'exactly 613 seeds' myth would be good!

Resin

OK.
I pulled the last two fruits out of the fridge - these were the last ones left hanging on the trees that had not already split open when I was down visiting my mom in late October.
Smallest was 1.75" diameter - contained 140 seeds - 117 'good' arils, the remainder were shriveled, undeveloped..
Larger one - though still quite small - was 2.25 inches in diameter, contained 343 total seeds(a couple of sections were rotten - but I counted the arils anyway).

So...I'll declare the 613 seeds myth busted.

This message was edited Dec 14, 2006 1:31 PM

Oops. Those sizes I provided were off by an inch. Smallest was 2.75" , Larger one was 3. 25" in diameter.

I'm presuming these are the 'Wonderful' variety - they're trees that I started from cuttings I got off a neighbor's tree 40 years ago, when I was just a youngster.

Nice work!

Resin