Objects

Besamim box, or spice tower (Hebrew: besamim)

Weekly Jewish holiday – Shabbat – concludes on Saturday evening with the Havdalah ceremony, which means "separation" in Hebrew. One of the ritual acts accompanying the ceremony is the smelling of fragrant roots, herbs, or crushed rose petals. They are placed in a decorative spice tower over which a blessing is recited. The scent of the herbs is symbolically meant to invigorate the body that has been left by the additional Shabbat soul (Hebrew: neshamah yeteirah) and helps believers cope with the challenges of the upcoming week.

The forms of spice towers have changed over different periods but with the preservation of traditional designs. They took the shape of towers, buildings, boxes, etc.

The besamim box from the collection of the Przypkowski Museum in Jędrzejów represents the tower-shaped type. It is supported by three legs in the form of vines that overlap onto a circular base. It has a baluster stem, and the cylindrical container with a tiny door is decorated with vertical grooves. The edges are adorned with a smooth half-round border, and there are four small bells hanging on hooks at the bottom edge. The whole structure is topped with an arched bell tower, with eagles in the upper corners and a bell suspended inside. It is covered with a pyramidal roof, ending with a sphere and a spike with a pennant.

The item is marked: the goldsmith's monogram "MCh" (in cyrillic script) in a rectangle; purity mark of "84" and a head in a kokoshnik.

The besamim box was acquired for the collection of the Jędrzejów museum from Piotr Maciej Przypkowski.