Yesterday I cut and peeled a pomegranate to harvest its seeds for my daily lunch salad. I used to be incredibly intimated by this fruit. Even after watching a ton of YouTube videos about how to open one up, I never felt like I could do it quite right and would always made a mess. I also never used to enjoy its bitter/tart flavor, so I rarely bought a whole pomegranate from the grocery store (one time I bought a pomegranate to brew beer with, and another time I remember needing pomegranate for a recipe I tried, but that was pretty much the entirety of my experience with this fruit.)
Three years ago, I changed my diet to Keto, limiting my daily intake of net carbs to 20-40g ---which means no sugar and no flour--- so I haven't eaten noodles or a bagel since February 2018. Because of the drastic reduction in my sugar intact, my taste buds have completely changed. I no longer crave super sweet foods (in fact, even when I am tempted by a delicious looking cookie or piece of chocolate cake and take a bite, I am usually immediately repulsed by how sweet it is!). I find myself enjoying a whole new palette of flavors, including things I once thought of as unappealing, such as the pomegranate, which I now find delicious and satisfying. And especially after finding that salad recipe I mentioned in a previous post, I now am eating (and thus cutting and peeling) one pomegranate a week, so I have to come embrace the mess (and reduce its effect by doing the dirty work in the sink for easy clean up).
As I was completing this task yesterday, I was delighted with the beauty of the plethora of tiny scarlet seeds I discovered beneath the smooth, red skin of the pomegranate. It really is an amazingly delightful, and quizzically bizarre fruit with an incredibly interesting history.
As you may or may not know, I was a Religion Major and Jewish Studies Minor at Northwestern University and have always been interested in the academic study of religion, as well as its practical applications to real-life community building. Learning the science and history behind the mythological stories in the Bible and other religious texts fascinates me, and leads me to a greater appreciation of the story. Here are two examples of the difference between believing in the miracle of a biblical story as something that defies science versus the miracle being a change in perspective, a new understanding, or just plain ol' perfect timing:
1) from the Hebrew Bible- Moses Parting the Red Sea. Some call it a miracle because Moses defied science, literally parting the Red Sea to lead his followers across the sea to the other side, and then returning the sea to its natural state once the enemy approached, drowning them. But I learned to call it a miracle because perhaps it was the tide of the sea that was timed just perfectly to allow the Israelites to pass through during low tide but drowning the Egyptians during high tide. (and now living in Gloucester where tides are a real thing, I too have been amazed by this seeming miracle of the tides-- I went kayaking once in these marshes near the ocean and almost couldn't return to the dock because the tide was so low there was no water to kayak on! So I can imagine living thousands of years ago, not understanding the tides and the science behind the gravitational pull of the moon, and thinking how miraculous the changing of the tides would appear to be, ESPECIALLY if the tide change just so happened to be perfectly timed to save my people).
2) from the Christian New Testament- The Loaves and Fishes. Some call it a miracle that Jesus was able to feed a crowd of 5000 people with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish that a young boy donated to the crowd, the miracle being the literal multiplication of this food, defying science and reality. But I learned that the miracle was the miracle of sharing. People were inspired by the kindness and generosity of this young boy who donated his lunch. As the baskets of food were being passed around to the crowds, other people shared *their* food, so instead taking food, they gave of their own food (and those who didn't bring a lunch only took what they needed). By the time every one was fed, there were loads of leftover loaves and fishes, not multiplied magically by Jesus' superpowers, but multiplied by the generosity of the crowd. People stopped hoarding what they had and shared. And *that* was the miracle.
In both of these examples, I find the lessons of the story more meaningful when the miracle is no longer a magical, unexplainable, impossibility, but something humanity can actually do and participate in! We can use and understand the science of nature to help us, and we can share what we have when others are in need.
So what does all this have to do with the pomegranate? You may have heard the story of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible. Adam and Eve were the first humans created by God to live in the Garden of Eden. They were allowed to eat anything in the garden except for fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A snake convinces Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam, so God banishes them from the Garden of Eden. For what it's worth, I do not believe this story to be literally true. It is a creation myth developed by our ancestors thousands of years ago told to explain things about life that puzzled them: why people wear clothing (shame of nakedness came from knowledge discovered after eating the forbidden fruit), why snakes slither on the ground without legs (the snake's punishment for manipulating Eve), why women suffer in childbirth (Eve's punishment for manipulating Adam), why we don't live in a world of paradise (humanity's punishment for the "original sin").
Traditionally, you'll see paintings and drawings of the fruit being an apple, but apples didn't flourish in Israel, pomegranates did. And since "people use whatever is at hand to express their religious beliefs," (Frank A. Salamone, Iona College), it is unlikely the apple was used for this story since apples were rarely at hand. Some additional evidence-- when the Ancient Hebrews were searching for their very own Promised Land, they specifically looked for a land that echoed the original Garden of Eden- "a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey" (Deuteronomy 8). Moses did not literally part the Red Sea, Jesus didn't magically multiply food, and Adam and Eve did not eat an apple. Correctly biblical misconceptions is one of my favorite things to do; it delights me.
I find it interesting how much religious symbolism exists about the pomegranate, but I'm not surprised. It's a beautiful and delicious fruit, full of fertility!
"The pomegranate is red, and so is blood. It has a lot of seeds and is an obvious symbol of fertility. It's beautiful, strong and delicate, and its juice has healing properties. It says a lot of different things all at once. People bring meaning to it." (Frank A. Salamone, Iona College)
Consuming pomegranates on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, became a tradition because, with its numerous seeds, it symbolizes fruitfulness for the new year. The pomegranate even appeared on the ancient coins of Judea. (Also, the pomegranate was said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 commandments of the Torah, but that is a misconception 😀.)
It's not just Judeo-Christian religious tradition that reveres the pomegranate. Buddhism considers the pomegranate to be one of the three blessed fruits. A poor old woman's gift of a small pomegranate to the Buddha is the gift that delighted him most.
Muslim tradition states that one must eat every single seed of a pomegranate, a fruit they believe came from the Garden of Paradise itself, because you can't be sure if maybe one its arils originated from actual paradise.
I delight in the pomegranate almost as much as I delight in writing about its religious symbolism. I used to write a sermon every week, and it is nice to return to writing about religious themes that I enjoy so much.
With delight (and a mouthful of pomegranate seeds),
♥Jamie
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