But we don't have to wait for someone else to tell us what that meaning is. The material used for a monument on a grave with inscriptions of names and dates. It is where we go to intensify the feelings we have for our relatives who have died. It is a part of our history, the genealogy of our people. It is the way we honor the dead and provide future generations a means to participate in their remembrance.
Fruit symbolizes hope and brings comfort.
Despite the reality of death, we bring children into the world because we are eternally optimistic that there is much good that they can accomplish. We provide them fruit for nourishment of their body and we speak of the symbolic fruit to nourish their soul. It shows kavod ha-met, respect and honor for the dead and nihum avelim, comfort, support and strength for the living. Some day I'll get an e-mail from someone telling me who discovered the stone, where the stone was found and the kind of fruit depicted. But the story of the stone fruit is not a story of facts.