Yiddishe Kop: The Book
of Jewish Brain Teasers
Vol. 1
Copyright Hazakah, Inc. 2011
Published by Hazakah at Smashwords
Congratulations on purchasing Yiddishe Kop: The Book of Jewish Brain Teasers Volume One. This e-Book offers 52 challenging lateral thinking puzzles with a Jewish bent.
The term "lateral thinking" was coined by Edward de Bono to describe how one solves a problem creatively by seeing it from different angles. "Yiddishe kop" refers to a Jewish logic which may have developed from traditional Torah study. Just as the Torah is compared to a diamond with 70 facets, allowing one to learn different lessons from phrases, words or even letters if viewed from the proper angle, the solutions to these puzzles may hinge on a similar type of detail.
These riddles may be played alone or in a group. When alone, reveal one clue at a time and try to determine the answer. When played in a group, everyone but the reader (the Puzzle Master) should ask questions. The Puzzle Master may only give one of four responses: "yes," "no," "irrelevant" or "partially correct." A "yes" response allows the questioner to ask a follow up question. If the group can't determine the answer within a certain number of questions (i.e. 20 questions), then the Puzzle Master wins that round. The role of Puzzle Master should rotate each round.
A sample round might look like this:
First the puzzle is read aloud by the Puzzle Master:
"What kind of doctor never says hello to his patients?"
Q:
Is the doctor human? Yes.
Q: Can the doctor speak? Yes.
Q: Is
the doctor rude? Irrelevant.
Q: Is the doctor's specialty
relevant? No.
Q: Is the doctor a man? Irrelevant.
Q: Do the
patients require this? No.
Q: Does the doctor have time to say
hello? Yes.
Q: Can the doctor speak English? Irrelevant.
Q:
Is it something about the patients that causes this? Yes.
Q: Are
the patients deaf and mute? No.
Q: Does he ever see a patient?
No.
Q: Does he have any patients? No.