The many-seeded fruit commonly used on Rosh Hashanah as a symbol of abundant merits is the pomegranate.
Its numerous seeds make it a natural image of fruitfulness, blessings, and the hope that a person’s merits will be plentiful in the coming year. Pomegranates are included among the symbolic foods eaten during Rosh Hashanah meals, alongside better-known customs such as dipping apples in honey.
The fruit also has an important biblical and Jewish history. Pomegranates appear in the Hebrew Bible and were used in the decorative imagery of the ancient Temple and priestly garments. Their association with abundance therefore combines a physical feature—the many seeds—with older religious symbolism.
A popular tradition says that a pomegranate contains 613 seeds, corresponding to the number of commandments in the Torah. That number is symbolic rather than a reliable botanical count: actual seed numbers vary from fruit to fruit. The fruit is also sometimes linked with righteousness, but the central Rosh Hashanah association is the wish for plentiful blessings and merits.