Olive Wood Tzedakah Box – Violet

In many homes the pushke stands where the week turns — near the candles, within reach on Erev Shabbos, so that the last act before the light is kindled is an act of giving. It is a small custom, and an old one, and it asks for an object worthy of standing there.

This piece is worked by hand in Israel from Israeli olive wood, the wood of the seven species, quarried from groves that have stood on that soil for generations. The maker sets the timber in epoxy of deep violet, pouring the resin so that it follows the natural break of the wood rather than any cut line of his own — the river of colour through the lid is the shape the tree itself left behind.

It is built in three parts. A raised plinth rests on carved feet, lifting the box clear of the surface. The body tapers as it rises. Above it sits a broad overhanging lid, cut with a single clean slot and finished flush to a mirror polish, so that the violet reads against the gold and umber of the grain the way light reads through coloured glass.

Nothing is engraved on it and nothing is applied to it. The material is left to speak, which is the more difficult way to make an object and the more lasting one.

A single piece. Because the grain and the pour cannot be repeated, this box exists once. The piece photographed here is the piece that will arrive.

Details

• Material: Israeli olive wood and epoxy resin
• Colour: Deep violet, deepening toward magenta through the base
• Height: 6⅜ in / 16.2 cm
• Lid: 4¾ × 3½ in / 12 × 8.9 cm
• Opening: Coin slot in the lid; the lid lifts free for emptying
• Origin: Handmade in Israel

Suited to a kitchen counter, a study, a shul office, or a child learning the habit early. Given at a chasunah, a bar or bas mitzvah, or a chanukas habayis, it carries more than most gifts of its size.

Olive wood remains a living material. Keep it from direct heat and prolonged sun, and wipe it with a dry cloth.