Bells and Pomegranates

Exodus 28: 33 "You shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet material, all around on its hem, and bells of gold between them all around"

I've always wondered what the significance is of the pomegranate in the Old Testament on the hem of the priests' robes. It is interesting, too, that Mary is sometimes portrayed holding a pomegranate. (It is also a symbol for Armenia, representing, among other things, fertility.)

Mary holding a pomegranate reminds me of some lines from Ash-Wednesday: "The desert in the garden the garden in the desert / Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed." I'm convinced (wrongly?) that these lines, at least at one level, refer to Mary (the Lady of Silences) and her act of bearing Christ, who Eliot also refers to as the silent Word. The pomegranate is an interesting fruit because it is comprised of many little fruits, each surrounding a rather predominant seed. These fruits are held together in one.