Crossword puzzle is Tashbetz in Hebrew.
In Parashat Tetzave, the High Priest wears a “ketonet tashbetz.” Ketonet means tunic; translating tashbetz is challenging because this is the one time in the Bible that the term appears (scholars call such a phenomenon a hapax legomenon). So what does it mean? It’s generally understood as checkered. So, thousands of years later when the modern Hebrew language was born, “tashbetz” was chosen as the new Hebrew word for crossword puzzle. Therefore, my tie is in honor of the ketonet tashbetz.
Rabbi Ed Bernstein 
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