AUGUST 3 • 2023 | 17

F

ourteen-year-old Ezra 
Shere holds the world 
record for completing a 
Pyraminx — just 1.14 seconds.
The incoming West 
Bloomfield High School soph-
omore can solve the Pyraminx 
even faster at home than in 
competition, averaging a mere 
0.67 seconds. He lives in West 
Bloomfield with his mother, 
Adat Shalom Synagogue’s former 
longtime rabbi, Rachel Shere, his 
father, Dan, and brother, Avi.
Solving a Pyraminx, or a tet-
rahedron puzzle in the style of 
a Rubik’s Cube, is no easy feat. 

Beating the puzzle requires spin-
ning the Pyraminx to line up 
the same colors on each side, a 
process that Ezra Shere explains 
boils down to understanding a 
simple algorithm.
It’s a pastime known as “cub-
ing,
” which is popular amongst 
puzzle-lovers of all ages. Shere 
first began cubing four years ago 
in 2019, and while he knew how 
to eventually solve the cube, he 
wasn’t able to beat the puzzle in a 
nearly split-second move like he’s 
able to today.
Shere studied YouTube tuto-
rials and taught himself how to 

speed-solve a Pyraminx and a 
traditional three-by-three Rubik’s 
Cube, the latter of which he can 
beat in five seconds. He contin-
ued to practice daily, eventually 
becoming skilled enough to join 
competitions.

BREAKING RECORDS
So far, Shere has competed in 
cubing all over the United States 
and Canada. He’s competed in 
Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts and Tennessee, 
plus cities in Ontario.
In 2023 alone, Shere has 
already joined nine cubing 
competitions, with another nine 
scheduled for the remainder 
of the year. “You make a lot of 
friends cubing,
” he says of the 
global cubing community. 
As for what he loves most 
about cubing, the answer is sim-
ple. “I like learning new things 
and learning how to be faster,
” 
Shere explains. “I’m trying to pio-
neer better ways to do things and 
show other people how I [solve] 
the cubes.
”
Shere received his world cham-
pionship title at an April 2023 
competition in Ann Arbor. Just 
three months prior to Shere’s 
winning solve, the world record 
fastest Pyraminx solve was 0.75 
seconds — a time that Shere 
managed to beat by 0.08 seconds.

CUBING FOR CHARITY
Practicing every day, Shere con-
tinues to hone his cubing skills 
and share his solves on his pop-
ular YouTube channel. He’s even 
hosting a cubing competition 
at Adat Shalom on Aug. 13 that 
some 70 participants are joining 
from all over the country. 
Yet Cubing 4 a Cure isn’t your 
average cubing competition. 
The Aug. 13 event will raise 
proceeds for the Leukemia and 
Lymphoma Society and costs 
$15 to enter (watching as a spec-
tator is free). The majority of 
cubing competitions don’t have a 
charity aspect.

“I felt like this summer was a 
good time to do it,
” says Shere, 
whose friend recently organized 
an event that donated proceeds 
to the society and inspired him 
to do something similar.
All proceeds generated by the 
Adat Shalom cubing competition 
will go to the nonprofit. Shere 
estimates that half of the regis-
tered participants are Michigan 
residents, and the rest will be 
traveling from out-of-state.
Shere’s mother, Rabbi Rachel 
Shere, 49, couldn’t be more proud 
of her son.
“I love watching how hard 
he works,
” she says. “I’m really 
proud of his work ethic and how 
much time and energy he com-
mits to it.
” 
Shere also admires how her 
son has become a role model to 
up-and-coming cubers and his 
efforts in raising money for char-
ity through cubing.
As for people interested in 
learning how to cube, Ezra Shere 
offers some advice.
“I think the best way to learn 
to cube nowadays is to go on 
YouTube and look up a tutorial,
” 
he says. “You should be able to 
learn it in just a few hours. Once 
you can solve it, just keep prac-
ticing and you can probably solve 
it in less than a minute.
” 

To register for Cubing 4 a Cure, visit 

www.worldcubeassociation.org/competi-

tions/Cubing4aCureFarmington2023. 

Cubing for 
a Cause

OUR COMMUNITY

World-record Pyraminx solver and 
WBHS student hosts charity cubing 
competition at Adat Shalom. 

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Ezra Shere enjoys his first-place win.

Ezra Shere’s 
Cubing 4 a Cure, 
takes place Aug. 13 
at Adat Shalom.

