Objects

Turret type besamim box

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 (M. Goldstein, K. Dresdner, Kultura i sztuka ludu żydowskiego na ziemiach polskich, Lwów 1935, pp. 40–41). The scent of the herbs is symbolically meant to invigorate the body that has been left by the additional Shabbat soul (Hebrew: neshamah yeteirah). It is also believed to help the faithful cope with the hardships of the coming week. The forms of spice towers have changed over different periods but with the preservation of traditional designs - – they usually had the shape of towers, buildings or boxes. The most popular type were the tower-shaped besamin boxes, a reference to the fortress and fortified tower that is a biblical symbol of God.

The besamim box from the collection of the Lublin Open Air Village Museum is in the shape of an openwork quadrilateral tower with a high conical roof topped with a moving flag. There are four moving flags at the upper corners of the container with a zigzag ornament running around it at the top and bottom. There is an inscription on the door: "ALPACCA".

The item was purchased for the collection of the Lublin Open Air Village Museum in 2009 from "Galeria Antyków" in Łódź.

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Information about the object
Author / creator
unknown
Object type
handicrafts
Place of creation
Poland (Europe)
Technique
spinning
welding
engraving
Material
alpaca
metal
Keywords
Copyright status
the object is not protected by copyright law
Owner
The Lublin Open Air Village Museum
Identification number
MWL/27682