Hands-On at the Conference: Carving Wooden Spice Boxes for Havdalah
The Practicing Jews conference in Madison, Wisconsin, gathered academics, artists, and community members for a week of conversations about Jewish visual culture, dance, and identity. Tucked among the keynote lectures and panel discussions was a workshop that invited participants to pick up a chisel and shape wood with their own hands. The session on carving wooden spice boxes for Havdalah drew makers who had never held a gouge before alongside seasoned woodworkers, all united by curiosity about the aromatic vessels used at the close of Shabbat.
Carving a spice box, or besamim container, is a craft that sits quietly at the intersection of ritual and artistry. The vessel holds cloves, cardamom, or other fragrant botanicals that are inhaled during the Havdalah ceremony, which marks the transition from the sacred rest of Shabbat back into the ordinary week. By shaping the container from a raw block of wood, participants engaged directly with the materials of Jewish domestic life, a theme that wove through many sessions at the gathering.
For readers following along from Australia, the workshop resonates with a growing maker culture in suburbs like Fitzroy, Brunswick, and Newtown, where small woodworking studios have opened beside coffee roasters and second-hand bookshops. Jewish community life flourishes in Caulfield and St Kilda in Melbourne, and in Sydney's eastern suburbs, where Havdalah is regularly observed in homes that increasingly value handcrafted objects over mass-produced ones.
The Significance of Besamim in Jewish Ritual
Spice boxes have served Jewish families for centuries, holding the aromatic elements that symbolise the sweetness and fragrance carried forward into the working week. Traditional designs range from tall, slender towers from Eastern Europe to delicate silver filigree from the Sephardi diaspora, but wooden examples hold a special place in folk craft traditions. The container is passed hand to hand during the ceremony, so its texture, warmth, and grain become part of the sensory experience.
Carving these vessels by hand connects the maker to generations of artisans who supplied Jewish homes with ritual objects. The grain of the wood matters: cherry and walnut age into a deep patina, while softer woods like pine are forgiving for beginners. In Jewish communities around the world, including those in Australia where multicultural craft fairs blend Jewish woodworking with broader Pacific artisan traditions, such handmade pieces carry both aesthetic and spiritual weight.
Inside the Madison Carving Workshop
The workshop took place in a bright studio space on the University of Wisconsin campus, with workbenches arranged so that participants could watch the instructor's demonstrations from multiple angles. The instructor, a woodworker and Judaica artist, began by explaining how Jewish ritual objects are designed to be held, lifted, and used, not merely displayed. Each participant received a small block of seasoned hardwood, a set of chisels, and a template for a simple spice box form.
Participants spent the first portion of the session sketching proportions and discussing how different shapes influence the way a box feels in the palm. Many attendees, including several who had travelled from as far as Sydney and Brisbane, were struck by the meditative quality of the work. The room fell into a quiet rhythm of measuring, marking, and shaving, broken only by occasional questions about grain direction or tool sharpening.
Woods, Tools, and Aromatic Materials
The choice of wood shapes the entire carving experience, and the workshop's instructor guided participants through a comparison of common options before anyone made their first cut. Understanding how a timber behaves under a chisel is as important as understanding the blessings recited over the spices inside the finished box.
| Wood Type | Hardness (Janka) | Grain Behaviour | Aroma Contribution | Finishing Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherry | 950 | Fine, straight | Subtle, sweet | Polishes to a warm reddish hue |
| Walnut | 1010 | Moderate, wavy | Mild, earthy | Takes oil finishes richly |
| Maple | 1450 | Tight, uniform | Neutral | Best left natural or oiled |
| Olive | 1740 | Irregular, figured | Faintly fruity | Requires sharp tools |
| Australian Blackwood | 1160 | Interlocked, decorative | Sweet, vanilla-like | Popular among luthiers in Hobart and Melbourne |
For Australian readers considering a similar project, local timbers like blackwood or jarrah offer a unique character and connect the finished object to the landscape where the maker lives. Sourcing such woods from a specialist timber yard in Campbellfield or Campbelltown supports small-scale Australian forestry and keeps the supply chain short.
Echoes Down Under: Jewish Woodcraft in Australia
Australian Jewish communities have long blended Old World craft traditions with local materials and sensibilities. In Melbourne's inner north, woodworking collectives share space with ceramics studios and screen printers, and Jewish participants often bring ritual objects into these communal workshops. A fair dinkum Havdalah set might combine a hand-turned Australian blackwood bowl with locally roasted coffee served afterwards at a nearby cafe, the kind of easy combination that defines a Saturday night gathering in the suburbs.
Markets such as Queen Victoria Market and the Adelaide Central Market host occasional Jewish craft stalls, particularly around the high holidays, where carved spice boxes appear alongside mezuzah cases and Shabbat candlesticks. These venues give small makers a chance to test designs and gather feedback. Australian audiences tend to respond well to objects that show the marks of handwork, a sensibility shared by the Madison workshop's emphasis on visible tool marks and natural edges.
Voices from the Carving Tables
Several participants noted that the workshop offered something the rest of the conference could not: a chance to make rather than discuss. One attendee, a graduate student from Brisbane, remarked that she had spent the entire week listening to papers about Jewish material culture and finally had an opportunity to contribute something physical to the field. Another, a retired cabinetmaker from Perth, said he came specifically to learn how Jewish woodworking differs from the European traditions he had practised for decades.
The instructor emphasised that the boxes need not be perfect to serve their ritual purpose. A slightly uneven lid or a visible chisel mark, she said, records the moment of making and reminds the user that the object was shaped by human hands. This philosophy found an easy home among Australian makers, who often speak of having a go and learning through doing rather than waiting for polished results.
Skills for Aspiring Spice Box Carvers
- Begin with a softwood like basswood or Australian pine, which forgives hesitant strokes and trains a steady hand before moving to hardwoods.
- Invest in a small set of quality chisels, keeping them razor-sharp; a dull tool is the most common cause of frustration at the bench.
- Study the grain direction before each cut, working with the wood rather than against it to avoid splitting and tear-out.
- Sketch the box's proportions on paper first, including how it will sit in the hand during the blessing over the spices.
- Finish with a food-safe oil such as tung or raw linseed, which protects the wood and deepens its colour over time.
- Visit local Jewish community centres in Caulfield or Newtown to see finished examples and connect with experienced makers who can offer guidance.
Continuing the Conversation Beyond Madison
The workshop closed with participants holding their unfinished boxes and exchanging contact details to share progress photos in the months ahead. Several attendees planned to bring their work back to synagogues and community centres, where the spice boxes would join existing sets of ritual objects. The conference organisers encouraged this kind of follow-through, noting that the strongest sessions are those that send participants home with both ideas and physical artefacts.
Anyone interested in the broader programme of talks, panels, and accompanying workshops can consult the conference schedule for details about other hands-on sessions and keynote presentations scheduled throughout the week.
The lesson of the carving workshop travels well: ritual objects carry meaning partly because they were made slowly, by hand, with intention. An Australian maker sourcing local blackwood, carving beside friends in a Brunswick studio, and filling the finished box with cloves before Saturday night services carries the spirit of the Madison gathering across the Pacific and into ordinary weekly life.