Rosh Hashanah – Eating Pomegranate

Daily Halacha Podcast - Daily Halacha By Rabbi Eli J. Mansour

It is customary on the night of Rosh Hashanah to eat pomegranate and recite a brief prayer: "Yehi Rason She'nihyeh Mele'im Misvot Ka'rimon" – "May it be His will that we should be filled with Misvot like a pomegranate." Meaning, we pray that we should perform many Misvot during the coming year, symbolized by the abundant seeds in a pomegranate. (There is a tradition that a pomegranate contains 613 seeds, and thus we pray that we should be "filled" with all the Misvot.) Hacham Ovadia Yosef, in Hazon Ovadia – Yamim Nora'im (p. 67; listen to audio recording for precise citation), raises the question of why we recite such a prayer. The Gemara in Masechet Hagiga (27) comments that even the "Posh'eh Yisrael" – the sinners among our nation – are "filled with Misvot like a pomegranate." If even sinners have this quality of being "filled with Misvot like a pomegranate," then why do we pray that we reach this standard? Shouldn't we aspire to much more? Hacham Ovadia offers an answer which he says he later saw in the Peri Hadash (Rav Hizkiya Da Silva, 1656-1695), namely, that the Gemara means that sinners perform "Misvot like a pomegranate" over the course of their entire lives. We, however, pray that in just the coming year we should fill ourselves with this abundance of Misvot. Hacham Ovadia then offers a second answer, noting that the Gemara inferred this concept from the verse in Shir Hashirim, "Ke'felah Ha'rimon Rakatech." The work "Rakatech" could be read to mean "your empty ones," referring to the sinners, who are "empty" from Misvot, but they are nevertheless like a "Pelah Rimon" – a slice of pomegranate, which is filled with seeds. The sinners are "filled with Misvot" like a slice of pomegranate, but on Rosh Hashanah we pray that we should be filled not like a slice of a pomegranate, but rather like an entire pomegranate, performing far more Misvot than the sinners. We might also suggest a third answer. The Gemara in Hagiga speaks of "Posheh Yisrael" – in the plural form, perhaps referring to all sinners of the nation combined. Altogether, the sinners of our nation fulfill Misvot resembling the seeds of a pomegranate. Our prayer on Rosh Hashanah is that we each should fulfill all those Misvot individually, on our own. According to all these interpretations, this is a significant prayer, expressing our wish that the coming year should be one of intensive involvement in Torah and Misvot. Summary: It is customary to eat pomegranate on the night of Rosh Hashanah and to recite a prayer expressing our wish that we should perform many Misvot during the coming year, symbolized by a pomegranate, which is filled with an abundance of seeds.