Some people read a thing. Others notice what it is made of.

If you are the kind of reader who spots the detail placed too carefully, the word repeated one time too many, the pattern hiding underneath the plain surface — this was built for you.

You’re already in the Monthly Subscriber Appreciation Gift just for being here. That gift is drawn at random every month, and it always will be to subscribers of the Healthy in Heart Friday Update Newsletter. This is something extra — for the readers who like to look twice.

Here’s How It Works

Every Friday, a puzzle is tucked inside the Healthy in Heart Friday Update Newsletter. A clue. A cipher. Something small that does not quite belong. Sometimes it points somewhere on this site. Sometimes it points back at itself.

Gather the clues across the month. Put them together. Then be the first to tell me what they say.

The Puzzles Are Only in the Newsletter

This is the part that matters.

The clues are not on this page. They are not posted on social media. They are not published anywhere else on this site. Each one goes out inside the Friday letter, and nowhere else.

If you are not on the list, you cannot play. That is not a marketing trick. It is simply how the game is built. The Pattern Detectives are the readers who show up on Friday.

The Monthly Prize

Solve the month. Be first. Win a surprise.

When the final newsletter of the month lands in your inbox, submissions open. The first Pattern Detective to email me with all of that month’s clues, correctly assembled, receives a surprise gift.

Not a gift card. Not a coupon. Something chosen — a book, a handmade thing, something from the shop, something from Lev Ha Olam, a tool from my Amazon Storefront. You will not know what it is until it arrives.

Send your answer to: [email protected] or reply to the last newsletter of the month.

The Rules, Plainly

  • Submissions open when the month’s last newsletter goes out. Anything sent before then does not count, so hold your answer.
  • You must have every clue from that month, correctly put together.
  • First correct email wins. Timestamps decide it.
  • The winner is announced in the following Friday letter.
  • One gift per month. New month, new puzzle, new chance.

A Word on Paying Attention

This is a game. It is also a small practice in something I care about.

Patterns are everywhere — in food, in habits, in the stories we are handed and never question. Most people move too fast to see them. The Pattern Detective slows down. Looks twice. Asks what is really being said underneath what is being said.

That habit will serve you far past any puzzle.

Subscribe and Play

Join the Shabbat Shalom Newsletter →

One letter, every Friday. The puzzle comes with it.