Havdalah heirloom

Havdalah spice container made of filigree silver for use in the havdalah ritual at the end of Shabbat. It consists of two fitting parts forming a spherical container in the middle to house the spices. A Star of David is on the apex. It is probably central European, circa 1870s to 1890s. The donor received the item from her grandfather's sister in South Africa in the 1970s. It is believed that the object may have belonged originally to the donor's great grandfather, Hirsch Leib Gottlieb (1829- 930), a well-known Hungarian Jewish journalist, translator and publisher.

Havdalah (Hebrew for ‘separation’) is a Jewish religious ceremony that marks the symbolic end of Shabbat and ushers in the new week, symbolically separating the holy day from the mundane period that follows. The ritual involves lighting a special havdalah candle with several wicks, blessing a cup of wine and smelling aromatic spices. Shabbat (the Sabbath) ends on Saturday night after the appearance of three stars in the sky.