Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt am Main

Kiddush is the ceremony of reciting blessings over a cup of wine at the beginning and end of almost every Jewish festival. Moreover, kiddush is recited at ceremonies of circumcision and marriage.

The wine blessing sym­bolizes the sacred nature of the cere­mony or festival and is one of the most important rituals in Judaism. Every Jewish household has at least one kid­dush cup, whose important function is indicated by its form or material, or by an inscription designating its use.

Although this cup bears only the Hebrew mark of the owner on the reverse of the base, its precious material and ornate form indicate that it is a ritual object. In the mid-eight­eenth century it was the typical form of kiddush cup used in the Judengasse in Frankfurt.

This box for spices (besamim) takes the form of a hexagonal tower with a curved spire set on a high, facetted base and stem ending in a knob.

The tower is made of silver filigree and the base is reinforced with gilded silver plates. In the six arcades of the tower there are small figures painted with enamel. Five of them are wearing the broad-rimmed black hat and long coat typical of German and Eastern European Jews. The sixth figure is a dark-skinned Indian with a crown of feathers, grass skirt and spear.

Each of the five men is making a gesture or holding an attribute relating in some way to the havdalah ceremony. The wine cup and prayer book, followed by the man who sees the light of the havdalah candle reflected on his finger­nails and the man with the actual havdalah candle. The man with the tiny spice box is the last in the se­quence, next to the Indian. In the eight­eenth-century imagination, the Indian was a Moor, which in turn is easily associated with “mor,” the biblical Hebrew word for myrrh. Myrrh could well have been kept in such a spice box.

The iconography is legible only with a knowledge of Jewish rites and the absence of a master's hallmark could indicate that it was the work of a Jewish silversmith. Jewish craftsmen were allowed to practice in Lviv as long as they worked only for Jewish clients. As they were not allowed to become members of the guild, they were not permitted to have their own master's hallmark.