This week is the custom for a fairly fun exercise. The Torah portion for the week is No'ah. In Hebrew that is spelled with two letters - נח.

The exercise is to try to spell the two letter word with seven spelling mistakes.

My Rav alerted me to this phrase in conversation when commenting on a few mistakes someone made in a very short piece of writing. He said how many mistakes can a person make in such a short piece - No'ah mitt zaiben graiben. Which he then explained to me to mean "Noah with seven mistakes" (I do not speak yiddish).

After doing some research it seems this is a fairly common exercise enjoyed on the week of Noah, to try to see how many ways you can spell the two letter word of Noah.

The source for this exercise seems to actually be from the Russian Czarina, Catherine the Great. She was of German descent and her Russian was fairly weak. She spelled Shchi, some sort of cabbage soup with a two letter Russian spelling, with 8 letters.

Somehow this became an exercise for two letter words, and Noah is the Jewish version of this game.

ןויעהאך