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.