(Jewish Group) How the sesame seed became the most Jewish of all ingredients

[Behind the Aegis]

When the poor Persian woodcutter Ali Baba overheard the leader of a band of thieves stand before a cave and say “open, sesame,” it changed his life forever. Those magic words unlocked unimaginable prosperity.

But why “open sesame” of all phrases? One theory holds that the word sesame — sesamum in Latin — sounds a lot like the Hebrew word sisma (or seesma), which loosely translates to “password.”

Another theory is that the opening of the cave in this tale from The Arabian Nights represents the dramatic splitting open of the tubular sesame seed pod — the fruit of the plant — each of which contains 75 to 100 seeds. In nature, the pods burst open when ripe, scattering the teardrop-shaped seeds, a most valuable bounty, upon the ground. In this way, “open sesame” is very literally a means of gaining access to hidden treasures.

Like the story of Ali Baba, the tale of the sesame seed itself is a rags-to-riches story. What is it about this lowly seed that makes it one of the most iconic ingredients in all of Jewish culinary history?

Jewish cuisine encompasses not only tahini — arguably the juice that fuels Israelis, who reportedly consume 50,000 tons of sesame seeds a year, mostly in the form of tahini — but also sesame candies, halva, sesame bagels and of course Chinese sesame noodles.

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I really like Halva!