SPICES
Table of Contents
According
to rabbinic legend, each Jew receives a special soul (neshama
yetera) on the Sabbath. As this extra spiritual dimension
departs from the body at the close of the Sabbath, one is overcome
with a certain degree of sorrow. The spices are interpreted as
a means of comfort at the moment of transition to the new week.
As it was customary in ancient times to welcome the Sabbath with
branches of myrtle, so during the service to usher out the Sabbath
the Havdalah ceremony people inhaled the fragrances
of their branches. When the Mavdil ("He who separates")
blessing distinguishing "between holy and ordinary, between
light and darkness" was recited, myrtle was passed from hand
to hand. |
In the course of generations,
aromatic spices (most popularly cinnamon and cloves in Ashkenazi communities)
began to replace the myrtle, but long usage has preserved the name "myrtle"
(hadas) for the spice box. In Sephardi communities, fresh sprigs
are still generally used.
The use of sweet-smelling herbs and spices roused the creative instincts
of artisans and they fashioned spice boxes in widely varied designs and
shapes in gold, silver, brass, glass and wood.
In Ashkenazi circles, the spice box took many forms, from flowers to miniature
trains. Most popular, however, from around the sixteenth century, was
the tower form, which was stylistically influenced by local architecture.
Rabbi
Shubert Spero takes a closer look at the symbolism of the tower spice
box.
I wish to suggest
that once a tower-shaped spice box made its appearance at a Havdalah ceremony,
its appropriateness was immediately perceived and its popularity insured.
The architectural form of the spice tower with its domes and turrets,
belfries and flags, represented to the medieval Jew both a military fortress
with its suggestions of strength and security, as well as a magnificent
religious edifice built by men to honor their deity. In both cases, these
were structures which reflected rights and conditions which the Jew in
that period did not possess. But while as an alien in that society he
could not identify with the real palaces, fortresses, city towers and
church spires which filled the medieval landscape, the Jew was able to
perceive the miniature spice tower in terms of biblical imagery and to
weave its meaning into the symbolic tapestry of the Havdalah ceremony.
Silver spice tower,
Nuremberg, 18th cent.
Heichal Shlomo Museum, Jerusalem
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As he
stared at the miniature tower with its aspiring lines and realistic detail,
the Jew intoned: The Lord is my strength and He is become my salvation.
Surely he reminded himself of the verse he had recited for the third time
that Shabbat at the grace after the third Shabbat meal: He is a
tower of salvation to his King. (II Samuel 22:51) Although bereft
of material strength, the medieval Jew was able to experience the fusion
of the representational and aesthetic elements of his tower- shaped spice
box, an intimation of the divine source of his own strength and salvation:
The name of the Lord is a strong tower.... (Proverbs 18:10)
The symbolism becomes even more pointed if we recall the Midrash[1]
on Psalms 18:51 which compares two versions of this verse, which
differ only in the vocalization of the first word: "He is a tower
of salvation" (migdol yeshuot) to his King (II Samuel 22:51);
He causes salvation to grow great (magdil yeshuot) to his
King (Psalms 18:51). According to the Midrash, if Israel is worthy,
salvation will loom as a tower, sudden and all at once! If not, salvation
is sure to come gradually, bit by bit. Therefore, on Shabbat, in the Grace
after Meals, the verse from Samuel is said (rather than that from Psalms)
since on the sacred day expectations of salvation are high and longings
for redemption most intense. He is a tower of salvation.
Silver spice tower, Hamburg, Germany, mid-18th cent.
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Supportive of this
basic symbolism is the association of the tower with the architectural
elements of the Holy Temple. Salvation, messiah, restoration of the Temple
all this comes together in the consciousness of the Jew at the
conclusion of the Shabbat. While in the Middle Ages he was not permitted
to build monumental synagogues, the Jew could contemplate the spired tower
in the flickering light of the Havdalah candle and dream of the
soon-to-be-restored Temple. The spices, seen as incense, likewise evoked
memories of the Temple service.
Explicit evidence
of this symbolism is found in an inscription on the eighteenth-century
spice box from Poland described by Israel Museum curator Chaya Benjamin:
Spice box Danzig (Gdansk), Poland, 1745-1749).... Apparently, the
Jewish owner commissioned the box in the form of a tower to symbolize
the Temple with an engraved inscription alluding to the rebuilding of
the Temple (dvir), and Jerusalem (hamigdal, the tower).
This inscription is connected to the hymn for the end of the Sabbath in
which Elijah, the prophet of the redemption, figures prominently. Inscription:
The Lord will build of gold the Temple and the tower (1746).[2]
The appearance of
bells and flags on the tower which are designed to tinkle and wave can
best be explained in terms of their function as spice boxes. It cannot
be maintained that the little bells and flags were simple added to all
Jewish ritual containers as a matter of course, for purposes of ornamentation.
I do not recall an etrog container adorned with bells and flags!
The spice box, on the other hand, was used not merely to store the spices
but to smell them after the benediction. The usual procedure was to shake
the box so as to activate the spices, open the little doors of the container,
recite the blessing and smell the spices. As one shakes the spice box,
the bells jingle and the flags wave.
Similarly,
the appurtenances of the Torah scrolls were sometimes adorned with bells
so that as one paraded with the scrolls, the bells would be sounded. In
such instances, the sound of the bells announced the performance of a
mitzvah, a sacred deed, and called others to attention. However, since
the etrog box is used only to store the etrog and has no role in the ritual,
there would be no point in affixing bells or flags.
Our conclusion is that the popularity of the tower shape spice box, as
a Jewish ritual object, has more to do with the general theme of the Havdalah
ceremony than with any obvious connection between spices and a tower.
Precisely with the departure of the Shabbat, the Jew needs a graphic and
aesthetic symbol which will remind him of where he is to find his strength,
his security and his salvation.
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[1]
Shokher Tou on Psalms 18:51 [Back]
[2] Steiglitz Collection Catalog,
no. 68. Israel Museum, Jerusalem [Back]
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Shubert
Spero is Irving Stone Professor of Jewish Thought at Bar Ilan University,
and author of God in All Seasons (1967), Morality, Halakha
and the Jewish Tradition (1983), and Judaism and the Idea of
History (1998). A former Clevelander, he resides in Jerusalem.
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SPICES
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