Library
Hebrew — Tanakh, novels, essays and speeches — each with a translation beside it, sentence by sentence.
- מגילת העצמאות Israeli Declaration of Independence The founding declaration, in the formal register Hebrew keeps for occasions. Short, and every sentence of it is quoted somewhere.
- הכרזת העצמאות של ארצות הברית United States Declaration of Independence A Hebrew translation of a text you very likely already know in English, which makes it an easy way in: you can guess ahead and check yourself.
- רות Ruth Four chapters, and the shortest way in: one family, one harvest, plain narrative.
- אסתר Esther Read whole every Purim. Court intrigue, and not one mention of God.
- שיר השירים Song of Songs Love poetry, and the Hebrew repays every minute it takes.
- איכה Lamentations Five acrostics on the fall of Jerusalem. The alphabet is visible down the page.
- קהלת Ecclesiastes Everything you have heard quoted in English, in the Hebrew it was written in.
- תהילים Psalms A hundred and fifty, and you can begin at any one of them.
- משלי Proverbs Self-contained verses, which makes it the easiest thing here to read a little of.
- איוב Job The hardest Hebrew in the catalogue, and for many people the reason to learn it.
- בראשית Genesis Where it begins, and the chapters everybody knows are near the front.
- שמות Exodus Slavery, departure, and the law. The narrative half reads easiest.
- ויקרא Leviticus The priestly law, in the register it was set down in.
- במדבר Numbers Forty years of wandering, two censuses, and Balaam's donkey.
- דברים Deuteronomy Moses saying it again before the end. The book the rest of the Tanakh quotes most.
- שופטים Judges Before the kings: twelve leaders, and the years between them.
- שמואל א I Samuel Samuel, Saul, and the young David.
- שמואל ב II Samuel David reigning, and paying for it.
- מלכים א I Kings Solomon, the Temple, and a kingdom splitting in two.
- מדינת היהודים The Jewish State The pamphlet that started it, in the Hebrew it was read in at the time. Short, argued rather than dreamt, and still surprising.
- מסעות בנימין השלישי The Travels of Benjamin the Third A Jewish Don Quixote who sets out from a small town to find the lost tribes and gets about as far as the next province. The funniest book on this shelf.
- ספר הקבצנים The Book of Beggars The book that taught modern Hebrew prose how to describe poverty without either flinching or sentimentalising. Mendele's own Hebrew of his Yiddish.
- אהבת ציון The Love of Zion The first modern Hebrew novel: a romance set in the days of Isaiah, written in deliberate Biblical Hebrew. Easier than it sounds if you have read Tanakh.
- תל־אביב Old New Land Herzl's novel of the country he expected, and the translation that gave Tel Aviv its name. Sokolow's Hebrew is the period's, not ours.
- שכול וכשלון Bereavement and Failure Bereavement and failure, and it means both. The hardest and best of the early novels, written in a Hebrew that was still being made up as it went.
- האישה שצעדה אלפי קילומטרים למען אחיה Woman Walks Far for Her Brother Farzana Majeed walked from Quetta to Islamabad for a brother nobody would account for. Told plainly, which is what makes it hard to put down.
- אריאל שרון הלך לעולמו והוא בן 85 Ariel Sharon Dies at 85 Written the day he died, and it opens by saying that whether you loved him is beside the point. Israeli news Hebrew at full stretch.
- לראשונה מזה 600 שנה: האפיפיור פורש מתפקידו Pope Resigns After 600 Years The first pope to resign in six hundred years, reported in Hebrew. World news is a different register from Israeli news and worth meeting.
- פרגוסון עוזב את מנצ׳סטר יונייטד Ferguson Leaves Manchester United Twenty-seven years at Manchester United, ended in one announcement. Sports Hebrew is the fastest here, and this is the gentle way into it.
- החברה The Woman Friend She was not beautiful in the ordinary sense, but her charm was great. Six hundred words, one woman, and a whole life implied around her.
- הביקור The Visit A man arrives from Rome with his servant, and the visit goes the way visits go. Berdyczewski at his driest.
- העכבר The Mouse A small, thin man who walked, they said, like a bent nun. A portrait that turns quietly into something else.
- בסוריה הפכנו כולנו לרוצחים In Syria We All Became Killers A Syrian writer on what the war did to the people who never fought in it.
- לו הייתי דיקטטור, הייתי רואה בכם אויב You Would Be My Enemy Four activists taken in Douma, and the open letter written for them. The title is what the letter says a dictator would think.
- אנחנו צריכים להיות זהירים אפילו עם מה שאנחנו חושבים Careful Even With Our Thoughts How self-censorship works once nobody has to be told to do it. Venezuela, reported from inside.
- כל מה שרציתם לדעת על צנזורה ברשתות חברתיות Everything About Social Media Censorship What actually happens when a social network takes a post down, set out in three languages at once.
- נפטר נשיא ונצואלה, הוגו צ׳אבס Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Dies Hugo Chavez dead at fifty-eight after a long illness, reported in Hebrew the day it happened.
- ציפי לבני תהיה שרת המשפטים Tzipi Livni to Be Justice Minister Tzipi Livni takes the justice ministry, and the sentence shapes of Israeli political reporting come with it.
- 99% מהקולות נספרו 99% of Votes Counted One seat between the two blocs with the count almost done. Election-night Hebrew: numbers, verbs, and almost no adjectives.
- כנס יפו לדיון בבעיות המגזר הערבי Jaffa Conference on Arab Sector Issues The Jaffa conference meets a third time. Municipal Hebrew, which is what a letter from the council is written in.
- תמה הלוויית הרב חיים קניבסקי Funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky Concludes The funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and the crowd that came to it, written from inside the world it describes.
- שער בתוספת הזמן מעניק נצחון לספרד על שבדיה Stoppage Time Goal Gives Spain Win David Villa scores in stoppage time and Spain get what they deserved. Match Hebrew at full speed.
- רוסיה של ארשאווין הביסה את הולנד 3:1 בהארכה Russia Crushes the Netherlands 3:1 in Overtime Arshavin's Russia beat the Netherlands in extra time, and nobody had expected it, the reporter least of all.
- ספרד בחצי הגמר לראשונה זה עשורים Spain in Semifinal for First Time A semi-final for the first time in decades, decided on penalties against Italy.
- הולנד ברבע הגמר - 4-1 על צרפת Netherlands in Quarterfinal Beat France 4-1 Four-one against France, the Netherlands through, and the best football of the tournament so far.
- הולנד הפתיעה בנצחון מוחץ על אלופת העולם איטליה Netherlands Stun World Champion Italy The Netherlands take the world champions apart. The report is as surprised as the crowd was.
- סבבי מאמנים בליגת העל בכדורגל Coaching Carousel in Israeli Premier League Coaches moving between clubs across the Israeli league in a single week. Local football Hebrew, names and all.
- יורו 2008 בקו הזינוק Euro 2008 at the Starting Line The teams are ready, the stadiums are ready, the fans are ready. Written the day before it began.
- השמועה The Rumor A rumour reaches the house of study a quarter of an hour before the lesson ends, and the lesson does not survive it.
- הזר The Stranger A Hebrew reading room in a large German city where Hebrew readers are few. The stranger who walks in is the story.
- קנאת אחים Brothers' Envy Two brothers and the envy that never needed a reason. Berdyczewski's usual subject at his usual temperature.
- עשיר ועני Rich and Poor A lecture hall, an old professor, and two students who stop being equals the moment they leave it.
- בעד החלון Through the Window He left a wife and two sons and went abroad to finish his studies. What happens to the window he looked out of is the rest.
- הסובב The Suitor Menachem-Ezra was not handsome, but he was polite and careful about his clothes. That is all of him, and it is enough.
- שמואל בן שמואל Shmuel Son of Shmuel Shmuel son of Shmuel opens his eyes, and Gnessin follows the thought rather than the day.
- קטטה The Brawl A brawl among the flour wagons. Gnessin writing something with an outside to it, which is rare.
- בגנים In the Gardens A white cloud crosses the morning sun, and the whole story happens underneath it.
- סעודה מפסקת The Last Meal Before the Fast The last meal before the fast, one room, one evening. The shortest way into Gnessin there is.
- ג׳ניה Jenia From the notes of a public man in the provinces. Long, interior, and the Hebrew of somebody inventing a modern prose as he goes.
- בינותיים Meanwhile At first there was a different wind about the place. Gnessin at full length, which is hard and worth it.
- זו בצד זו Side by Side He loved Leah a little, for her red hair and because she knew Hebrew. He was fond of her younger sister too, and that is the trouble.
- שתי שנים ומחצה Two and a Half Years He met her husband on a student bench in Leipzig. Some years pass, the studies end, and nothing else does.
- בעגלת הברזל In the Railway Carriage Third class, between two cities, on a wet evening. Jews sitting side by side and talking, which is the whole of it.
- יהונתן Jonathan Yonatan the Clever, so called by friends who meant the opposite. Enrolled at the university for years without attending a lecture.
- המבוהל The Alarmed One Alarmed was his character and there is no other word for him. Tall, thin, red hair down over his eyes, and nothing to do but talk.
- פסח Passover A small shop selling pots, thread, pens, ink and incense, and the man who stands in it from morning until night waiting for a customer.
- ארבעת האחים The Four Brothers A father who sits in his room like a man already dead, a midwife mother who is rarely home, and the four sons that leaves.
- בן־פשע Son of Crime Arkady Drebitz-Yablonsky. Two surnames, which were the making of him and then the undoing.
- בבטן אמם In Their Mother's Womb Two young Hasidim, not the studious kind, who spend months at a time at the rebbe's court. The days I am describing are not our days.
- המנושק The Kissed One A Galician who married into a town on the border between the dark country and enlightened Germany.
- אנשי השדה The Men of the Field Among Jews a man's name rarely fits him. Three brothers all called Field will teach you that much.
- הישנים והערים The Sleepers and the Wakeful Elsewhere youth is a preparation for earning a living. Here it is the reverse, and the town does not notice.
- הנסתר The Hidden One A simple thing happened in Kitov: the old beadle's eldest son died. Half the place is a town and half of it is a village.
- בעל הסיפור The Storyteller Married, a daughter in the cradle, and he leaves his small Lithuanian town for Vilna to see to his future. He has a great many thoughts.
- השניים The Two Three women among the Russian and Polish students in the capital's suburb, always seen walking together, and not alike in the least.
- הצלי בהיכל The Roast in the Palace I did not see this myself, I heard it from a reliable man. If it turns out not to be true, the invention is not mine.
- המהלכים והעומדים Those Who Walk and Stand The town is called Plain and is nothing of the kind. You climb and descend, climb and descend, until you reach the old streets by the stream.
- מאיגרא רמה From a Great Height The door opened and a student I had never met jumped in and began arguing with me about the Jews, Zionism, Herzl and Lassalle.
- דין תורה A Torah Judgment A scandal in Radia: the rich man struck Ephraim-Reuven in the synagogue, in front of the whole congregation. Right hand, left cheek.
- שני יוסף Two Josephs Another notable deserves his monument: Gedalyahu of the post office, who answers to nobody.
- אסונות Disasters In a cart on the road she falls into conversation. One of the Jaffa expellees? No, she has never been to Jaffa. She has heard of it.
- נכא רוח Broken Spirit Back from the Congress, and his prophecy has come true. A pessimist's prophecy always does, which is not the comfort he wants it to be.
- גזלנים Robbers He kept a grocery in Jaffa. After the expulsion he bought a bald donkey and a two- wheeled cart and started moving other people's belongings.
- צוואה The Testament The librarian is exact and devout about his duties. Then a boy of fifteen begins coming twice a week, and he is a little strange.
- הוא סיפר לעצמו He Told Himself Half a year since the news reached him, and four days more since the thing itself. Twenty-five weeks turning inside a frozen riddle.
- תרעומת Grievance A new journal begins and every writer in the provinces descends on its office, some to be paid and some to find a reason to go on.
- חידושים Innovations You are impressed by missionaries overseas who dress and talk like Jews? You need not travel that far.
- בינו לבינו Between Him and Himself He lost a job that paid ten shillings a week for twelve-hour days, and did not look for another. He said to himself: on the contrary.
- חץ תשועה Arrow of Salvation In the days of the Hasmonean wars, a village smith with one son of eleven and a daughter two years younger. Fully pointed.
- קשתות ל״ג בעומר Bows of Lag BaOmer Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabbi Yehuda were true friends who agreed about almost nothing. They were unalike as children already.
- עפר הקודש Holy Dust Benayahu saw no silver in his parents' house, no watch on a chain, no earrings. So he never saw a lock or a key there either.
- נס חנוכה The Hanukkah Miracle On the first night the children stand packed together waiting for their father to finish the blessings and hand out the Hanukkah money.
- עסקן במצוות A Zealous Do-Gooder Shmuelon came home from the reading of the Megillah insulted: no pastries, nothing. And he had fasted the day before like a grown man.
- הנשיקה The Kiss Yosef was not yet two when both his parents died, and the neighbours who buried his mother began discussing what should be done with him.
- קריאת התורה The Torah Reading An abandoned city. Facing the stream stands the synagogue, and in its ark seven scrolls. Pointed, and nearer a poem than a story.
- אחרי מותו של ניטשה After the Death of Nietzsche Weimar, the twenty-fifth of August 1900, a quarter to twelve in the morning. Gnessin on a death that was days old when he wrote.
- הפועל חולון אלופת המדינה בכדורסל Hapoel Holon Wins National Basketball Title Hapoel Holon take the Israeli basketball title. The easiest text in the catalogue, and the fastest.
- הבחירות באיטליה The Elections in Italy A hair's breadth between Bersani's centre-left and Berlusconi's right. Foreign politics in Hebrew is its own register.
- הושבעו חברי הכנסת ה־19 The 19th Knesset Members Sworn In The nineteenth Knesset is sworn in and a hundred and twenty people declare allegiance one after another.
- אחרי וינוגרד: ביקורת על אולמרט After Winograd Criticism of Olmert The day after the Winograd report, criticism of Olmert arrives from inside his government and outside it. It was expected.
- בג״ץ בצו ביניים למזוז High Court Orders Mazuz The High Court asks the attorney general why the plea bargain should not be struck down. Legal Hebrew at its shortest.
- הוצתו משרדי בית״ר ירושלים Beitar Jerusalem Offices Set Ablaze Beitar Jerusalem's offices burn after the club signs two Muslim players and a part of its own support turns on it.
- פיינל פור: מכבי בדרך לגמר Final Four Maccabi Heads to Final Maccabi Tel Aviv come back from an early deficit against Siena and reach the final. Basketball moves faster than football, in Hebrew too.
- רוסיה היממה את שבדיה Russia Stuns Sweden Russia are not exactly lions, says the report, and then they beat Sweden two-nil and go through.
- גרמניה נתקלה במשוכה גבוהה מדי Germany Faces Too High a Hurdle Croatia put a hurdle in front of Germany that turns out to be too high, on the way to the quarter-finals.
- שחזור של המפץ הגדול Recreating the Big Bang Could the first time travellers be real? The collider is weeks from switching on, written in Hebrew for people who are not physicists.
- הקורבן הראשון של בית המוות First Victim of Group of Death The group of death claims its first victim: the crowd. A goalless draw between Romania and France, by somebody who sat through it.
- רונאלדו: ההבטחה שמומשה Ronaldo: The Promise Fulfilled Cristiano Ronaldo makes good on the promise and Portugal beat the Czechs three-one.
- ספרד הדהימה את רוסיה Spain Stunned Russia Euro 2008 brings out the best in Spain, and Russia are on the receiving end of it, four-one.
- חצי הגמר הראשון: טורקיה־גרמניה First Semifinal: Turkey-Germany Fourteen available players and Turkey still go out three-two. The headline borrows the Arabic word for honey, as Hebrew does.
- שווייץ הצילה כבודה Switzerland Saved Its Honor Switzerland save their dignity against a second-string Portugal, and the hosts go home with a win at least.
- קרואטיה לא ריחמה על פולין Croatia Showed No Mercy to Poland Croatia show Poland no mercy, and Poland settle down to wait for 2012.
- היוונים חיכו לשווא The Greeks Waited in Vain Greece wait in vain for a gap in the Russian defence, and the holders go out.
- מי שלא כובש - סופג Who Doesn't Score Concedes Miss enough chances and you concede. Croatia go out to Turkey on penalties, which the headline saw coming.
- תיקו מותח בין רומניה ואיטליה Tense Draw Between Romania and Italy Four days on and back to Group C, for a one-all draw with more surprises in it than the score admits.
- גרמניה ברבע הגמר Germany in the Quarterfinals Germany give Austria nothing at all and go through one-nil.
- כלפי ליא Against Whom Avraham-Hirsh the schoolmaster and Baruch-Shlomo the scribe. The title is the Aramaic a Talmudist reaches for when he wants to know who exactly is being accused.
- הזקן בין נכדיו The Old Man Among His Grandchildren Old Avraham-Shlomo has a great sorrow, and it comes over him precisely when he is sitting at home surrounded by his grandchildren.
- בלילה ההוא That Night It was the custom of the young men of the kloyz, the moment evening prayers were finished. That night it went differently.
- גדליהו Gedaliah He scraped a living out of dry schoolteaching, and there was a good deal more to him than that, which nobody in the town required.
- קריאה וזמן Reading and Time Old Baruch-Bendit takes off the second pair of tefillin and is left with the whole morning and nothing to put in it.
- עסקי פוליטיקה Political Affairs Whenever old Yeruham hears the young men talking politics he has something to say about it, and they would very much rather he did not.
- מתוך כעס Out of Anger She does not put on airs with the neighbours about being the one learned woman among them. That is not at all the same as forgiving them.
- אברהם־מאיר הזקן ואלקנה האברך Old Avraham-Meir and Young Elkanah Old Avraham-Meir falls silent in the middle of his conversation with Elkanah, and the silence is the story.
- זיידיל השען Zeidel the Watchmaker Zeidel the watchmaker is a Hasid in everything he does, except his clothes, about which he is not particular in the least.
- בשל קידוש לבנה Because of the New Moon Blessing Hirsh-Mendel told it. The whole thing turned on the blessing of the new moon, and on somebody arriving late for it.
- בליל שני של פסח On the Second Night of Passover On the second night of Passover they used to sit together, year after year. This is what happened on one of them.
- כוכבי הבצה Stars of the Swamp Do you know the stars, boys? The good ones, that look down at you kindly. This is about the other kind.
- ליל נדודים Night of Wandering Berki and Yomtil, two bachelors permanently installed in the rebbe's kloyz, and one night when neither of them sleeps.
- הצדיק מסוסוב The Tzaddik of Sasov It is well known that the tzaddik of Sasov loved every Jew, whichever sort of Jew he turned out on inspection to be.
- בין זיו לזיו Between Radiance and Radiance R' Shammai the elder sits among the young married men in the kloyz and sets about sweetening a harsh judgement.
- שלום עליכם Peace Be Upon You They asked old R' Henikh what peace in the house is actually worth. He told them, at length, and with an example.
- עצמות יבשות Dry Bones A company of young men and women who came up like blossom in the changing times. The title is Ezekiel's, and it is meant.
- ארוחת בוקר Breakfast A man of thirty, light in heart and in eye, finds himself at breakfast in somebody else's family house.
- שרב Heat Wave Oh, the sharav. You hear the cry a thousand times a summer, and here is somebody who stopped to look at what the heat actually does.
- בעל הון The Man of Means In a poor shtetl hidden in the marsh forests of Polesia, the narrator has business to finish with a man of means.
- אחת One A mother and four children between five and nine, one room and two doors. Written for children to act, which makes it the plainest spoken Hebrew in the catalogue.
- במקום דרשה Instead of a Sermon Ahituv turns thirteen and does not want to make the speech. His sister, four friends aged eight to thirteen, and a teacher all have views. The easiest play here.
- עולם הבא The World to Come Late evening, a table laid for supper, a turner's bench under a failing paraffin lamp. The next world comes up, the way it does at that hour.
- מרדכי והמן Mordechai and Haman Mordechai knocks on Haman's door and asks who lives here. A Purim play, four children in the cast and a crowd behind them.
- באוהל In the Tent Jacob's sons in a dark tent, whispering in a temper, and Issachar standing in the doorway holding the torn coat.
- לאחר הקבורה After the Funeral A widow and two aunts, the mirror turned to the wall and a memorial candle on the sill. The talk after a funeral, which is never about the dead.
- לילה בבית הקברות A Night in the Cemetery A corner of a graveyard, a leaning fence, a few thin trees and some very new graves. Peretz subtitled it a play for the nerves.
- הדוב The Bear A young widow in mourning, a landowner arriving about a debt, and an old servant who can see exactly where this is going. Chekhov's one-act farce.
- בגן העיר In the City Garden Malka and Yosef sit under an oak in the town garden saying almost nothing. Twice nothing, Yosef offers, is a broken heart.
- על יד החלון By the Window Miriam is alone at the window. Her father is in his grave and her mother is in prison over a stolen hen. Menachem comes up out of the dark.
- אחשורוש מלך טפש Ahasuerus the Foolish King Two girls put on the Purim story, in which the king of Persia and Media is not the sharpest man in it. The title settles that before the curtain.
- בת השדכן The Matchmaker's Daughter Neta Chikin has a broad greying beard, scheming eyes, and clothes that are half the old world and half the new. A matchmaker's comedy in one act.
- נעים מאוד Nice to meet you Two people meet. Names, where you are from, how you are.
- בבית קפה In a café Ordering, and asking what it costs.
- איפה הרחוב Where is the street? Asking the way, and how far it is.
- נתראה מחר See you tomorrow Making a plan: when someone is free, and where to meet.
- במעלית In the elevator Two neighbours, four floors, nothing to say.
- מה השעה What time is it? A stranger, a clock, and a bus that has already gone.
- בפלאפל At the falafel stand Half a portion, everything in it, no pickles.
- טעות במספר Wrong number A phone call to the wrong flat, twice.
- באוטובוס On the bus A free seat, a heavy bag, and one stop too far.
- באולפן Ulpan A first class, a name, and a language nobody shares.
- בבית מרקחת At the pharmacy A cough, no prescription, and something for the throat.
- המפתח The key A locked door, a bag, and a key in the wrong pocket.
- שני קפה Two coffees An order, a name for the cup, and a name nobody hears right.
- הכלב The dog A park, a dog, and a question people ask about dogs.
- נדבר We'll talk The end of a phone call, which in Hebrew takes four turns.
- בסופרמרקט At the supermarket Finding things, quantities, paying. Still the present tense, but the turns are longer.
- מונית A taxi A destination, a route the driver prefers, and a meter nobody switched on.
- בבנק At the bank A transfer that did not arrive, and a clerk who can see it did.
- אצל הספר At the hairdresser A little off the sides, and a conversation about how much is a little.
- החבילה The package A slip in the letterbox, an office, and a package for somebody else.
- המקדחה The drill A neighbour, a borrowed tool, and a wall that turns out to be concrete.
- תור לרופא A doctor's appointment A queue on the phone, a free slot in three weeks, and a cough that will not wait.
- בשוק At the market Tomatoes, a price, and a kilo that becomes a kilo and a half.
- אבידות Lost property A coat left on a train, and a description that fits everything.
- כרטיס סים A SIM card A new arrival, a cheap plan, and a contract nobody reads.
- פיצה בטלפון Ordering a pizza An order, an address the shop cannot find, and forty minutes that mean an hour.
- מנוי לחדר כושר A gym membership A year's contract, a month's trial, and a sentence about January.
- להחזיר חולצה Returning a shirt A gift, a receipt that is a photograph, and a credit slip.
- לאסוף מהגן School pickup A late parent, a child who is not worried, and a teacher who is.
- לראות דירה Seeing a flat A phone call about an advertisement, and a photograph from a better year.
- אצל הווטרינר At the vet A cat that ate something, and an owner who knows exactly what.
- להזמין שולחן Booking a table Friday night, no space, and a table that appears when a name is mentioned.
- אופניים בהשכרה Renting a bike An hour, a deposit, and a brake that works well enough.
- איך היה בסוף השבוע How was the weekend? The past tense arrives, and with it reasons, plans that changed, and an opinion.
- הצעת מחיר The estimate A garage, a noise, and a price that depends on which noise it is.
- הטופס The form A clinic, a form, and a signature that has to be someone else's.
- אחריות The warranty A machine that broke a week after the year ended.
- השכן מלמעלה The neighbour upstairs A noise at night, a child who does not sleep, and two tired people being polite.
- ריאיון An interview A job, a gap in a CV, and an answer better than the question.
- קבוצת ההורים The parents' group A class trip, a payment, and a message nobody wants to send.
- מנעולן The locksmith A door, a night rate, and a key inside the flat.
- צו מילואים A reserve summons A letter, a date that clashes with everything, and an officer on the phone.
- השליח The courier A sofa, a stairwell, and a measurement nobody took.
- הכרטיסים The tickets A concert, a website that crashed, and two seats in different rows.
- לפני החג Before the holiday A family, a division of labour, and a fridge nobody claims.
- הקרון השקט The quiet carriage A phone call, a sign nobody reads, and a request made three times.
- המתכון The recipe A grandmother's dish, a measurement in handfuls, and a phone call to check.
- סאבלט A sublet Two months, a cat, and a landlord who must not find out.
- המטען The charger A café, a socket, and a laptop at four per cent.
- בחדר המדרגות In the stairwell A siren, a stairwell, and neighbours who have not spoken in a year.
- הביטול The cancellation A flight, an insurance policy, and a clause that covers everything except this.
- הטיפ The tip A bill, a service charge, and two people counting the same number differently.
- התמונה הישנה The old photograph A box in a cupboard, a face nobody can name, and a date on the back.
- דירה לראות A flat to see A long conversation with something at stake: comparing, hesitating, disagreeing politely, deciding.
- חידוש חוזה Renewing the lease A rent rise, a boiler that was never fixed, and a year each of them counts differently.
- דעה שנייה A second opinion A scan, a specialist who disagrees with a colleague, and a patient in the middle.
- רכב יד שנייה A second-hand car A test drive, a service book with a gap in it, and a price that moves twice.
- התאריך The deadline A promise made to a client, by someone who did not ask the person doing the work.
- סידור ההושבה The seating plan A wedding, two families, and an uncle who cannot sit near anyone.
- העץ The tree A municipality, a pavement, and roots that were there first.
- לבחור בית ספר Choosing a school Two parents, two schools, and a child who was not asked.
- השותף The partner A small business, one partner who wants out, and a number that has to be agreed.
- הנזילה The leak Water through a ceiling, an assessor with a form, and two flats that both blame the pipe.
- בשבעה At the shiva A visit, the wrong sentence, and the right one arriving late.
- בהפגנה At the demonstration Two strangers on a blocked road, agreeing about the cause and not the method.
- במעבר At the crossing A checkpoint, a question asked twice, and a bag that has to be opened.
- עורך הדין The lawyer A letter with a deadline, a tenant who is right, and advice about what that is worth.
- ילד בחוף A child on the beach A missing boy, four minutes, and two adults staying calm out loud.
- העלאה A raise A number asked for, a number offered, and the sentence that decides it.
- אצל אבא At Dad's A hearing aid in a drawer, a daughter who noticed, and a man who did not want to be old.
- הדירה של סבתא Grandma's flat Two siblings, one flat, and a memory that is worth money.
- החניה שלי My parking spot A neighbour, a parking space, and a rule nobody wrote down. Idiom, irony, and an argument nobody wins.
- קבוצת הוואטסאפ The group chat A building committee, two hundred messages, and one person who replies to all of them.
- לא נפגשנו שנים We haven't met in years A street, a face from before the army, and a friendship that was ended by neither of them.
- בן הדוד מחו״ל The cousin from abroad A visitor with opinions about Israel, and a host who agrees with none of them and defends all of them.
- הביקורת The review A restaurant owner, a one-star review, and the person who wrote it eating there again.
- הטסט The driving test A third attempt, an examiner who says nothing, and a right turn that decides it.
- פעמיים אותו ערב Twice the same evening A hall booked to two couples on one date, and a manager who knows exactly whose fault it is.
- השרברב שמסביר The plumber who explains A blockage, a diagnosis nobody asked for, and a lesson in how a building works.
- מהצבא From the army Two men who served together, twenty years on, and a story one of them remembers differently.
- בעלת הדירה The landlady A flat sold over a tenant's head, and a woman explaining that she is sorry and selling anyway.
- לספר או לא To tell or not Two sisters, a father's test results, and a disagreement about what he can bear.
- המנהל החדש The new manager A team, a manager brought from outside, and a person who applied for the job.
- השקר הקטן The small lie A friend caught in something minor, and a conversation about why it matters.
- החוב The debt Four thousand shekels lent two years ago, and neither of them wanting to be the one who mentions it.
- החדר הריק The empty room A son who has moved out, a room, and two parents who want different things from it.
- משרד הפנים The Interior Ministry A passport, a form, and a document obtainable only from the office refusing to issue it. Bureaucratic register, and the vocabulary that comes with it.
- אותה חניה The same parking spot Dana and Yonatan, a hundred dialogues on: the same building, the same space, and a committee vote that goes the wrong way for both of them.
- בית הדין לעבודה The labour tribunal A dismissal, a hearing that was held on paper, and a judge asking the question nobody prepared for.
- המכרז The tender A municipal contract, a specification written for one supplier, and a committee member who says so.
- במערכת In the newsroom A story with one source, a deadline, and an editor deciding what the public is owed.
- ועדת התכנון The planning committee A tower where a car park was, an objection from the street behind, and a planner explaining shade.
- טופס ההסכמה The consent form A surgeon, a form listing every risk, and a patient who wants to know which ones are real.
- הנחיה Supervision A doctoral student, a chapter rewritten four times, and a supervisor saying the real problem out loud.
- הביקורת הפנימית The internal audit A finding, a manager who wants the wording softened, and an auditor explaining what softening costs.
- צו הפינוי The eviction order A social worker, a family with fourteen days, and a system with three doors that are all the same door.
- התרגום The translation A translator and an author arguing about a single word, and about what a reader is owed.
- סבב הגיוס The startup A founder, an investor, and eighteen months of runway measured two different ways.
- בארכיון In the archive A file closed for seventy years, an archivist, and a granddaughter who is not a researcher.
- המשמרת האחרונה The last shift A night nurse retiring, a young colleague, and everything that cannot be written in a handover.
- דניאל Daniel A foreign court, four kingdoms, and the visions at the end. Half of it is Aramaic rather than Hebrew, which is worth knowing before you start.
- עזרא Ezra The return from Babylon and the rebuilding, with the lists that say who came back. Parts of it are in Aramaic.
- יהושע Joshua The crossing, the conquest, and the land divided tribe by tribe. Narrative, with long stretches of boundaries in the middle of it.
- מלכים ב II Kings Two kingdoms running down to their ends: Israel to Assyria, Judah to Babylon.
- ישעיהו Isaiah Sixty-six chapters, and some of the hardest Hebrew here. Prophecy, and the poetry that carries it.
- יונה Jonah Four chapters, read every Yom Kippur: a prophet who runs, and a city that does not need much persuading.
- עובדיה Obadiah Twenty-one verses against Edom, and the shortest book in the Tanakh.
- נחום Nahum Nineveh falls. Three chapters, and the imagery does not let up.
- חבקוק Habakkuk A prophet who argues with God and is answered. Three chapters, the last of them a psalm.
- צפניה Zephaniah The day of the Lord, in three chapters.
- חגי Haggai Two chapters telling a half-built temple to be finished.
- זכריה Zechariah Night visions first, plainer prophecy after. Fourteen chapters, and the visions are the strange part.
- מלאכי Malachi The last of the prophets, arguing in questions and answers.
- אצל Beside Gnessin's last and longest novella: Efraim comes back to the provinces, and every feeling arrives a sentence after its moment has gone. Stream of consciousness before anyone had the term.
- שמה Over There Away — the big city, the yeshiva, anything but the narrow streets and the cheder in the butcher's house. A boy talks himself into leaving.
- פעמיים Twice The true misery of the cheder was not Reb Sender's pinches, it was the tedium — the days of peace were worse. A childhood counted twice.
- בחצר In the Yard — Who? Chaim Mati? — Him! A courtyard of neighbours works out what the quiet man has done, and nobody thinks to ask him.
- הנדיל Hendil Hendil is thirty, small and weak, and works for a scribe of holy books. Everyone who looks at him feels a sharp, needling pity, and the story follows that pity to its source.
- מכאן ומכאן From Here and There Six notebooks out of a wanderer's satchel, laid in dedication on two graves. Brenner's Palestine — the labour, the fevers, the quarrels — in a frame that shows its seams on purpose.
- מזל Luck A widow of forty counts her blessings in half a sack of barley: her only daughter has luck, golden hands. The girl is lying down with a fever.
- הגאולה והתמורה The Redemption and the Exchange In the night the 'enemy's' aeroplanes bomb the German army post by the farm — and the farm had been waiting for them, almost openly, as for a redemption. Brenner on what liberation looks like up close.
- מהתחלה From the Beginning Found papers from an abandoned house, dedicated to a son who will read them grown. The title means 'from the beginning', and the beginning is the young of the new settlement.
- מן המיצר Out of the Straits Cut scrolls of a diary from London's Whitechapel, where the writer sets type for a Jewish paper that is always about to die. Brenner's London years, barely disguised.
- פת לחם A Loaf of Bread By the spilled light of a yahrzeit candle a man hurries from the spot with what he has just taken in his coat. Hunger, in Brenner's first book, is not a metaphor.
- בלילי קיץ On Summer Nights A worn-faced woman rocks the cradle, singing under her breath, talking her year-old daughter into sleep. The summer nights are long and nothing in them rests.
- חלל Fallen Yom Kippur at the edge of town: the study house packed, the white-wrapped bodies swaying like night shadows through the Avodah. One of them the title already mourns.
- מצווה A Mitzvah The pre-Passover scouring of poor houses — the upheaval, the lye, the black straitened bitterness of it — performed as a duty, in a house with nothing in it.
- בנשף At Night A clouded winter day going dark, a night ahead long as the exile and cold as the ice in people's hearts — and two of them sitting on the floor, talking it through.
- נדודים Wanderings First night in the district town: the unroofed porch of the grandest study house, 'in the bosom of creation', with rain on the way. Wandering, from someone who did it.
- מרים Miriam Berdichevsky's only novel, finished in his last year: Miriam grows up between two small towns while the narrator keeps breaking in to mourn them. A whole world, closed and inventoried.
- מעבר לנהר Across the River A young son-in-law kept in the house of a rich father-in-law, in a town with two faces — gentiles at ease on the hill, Jews packed in the hollow. Memoirs of one who left, as the subtitle admits.
- בין הפטיש והסדן Between Hammer and Anvil Whom God would chasten with the loneliness of life, He first sends far from home. A wanderer's notebook, caught between the old life and the new one that will not quite take him.
- שבכתב ושבעל־פה Written and Spoken The Torah has a written half and a spoken half; so did his childhood — a soft-hearted father, an exacting mother. A single page of memory.
- אוכמתא וחיוורתא Black and White His mother dies; within months a stepmother and her daughters fill the house. Black and white, as the Aramaic of the title has it.
- פת לחם (ברדיצ׳בסקי) A Loaf of Bread His father's rabbinate paid little, and the interest on the small inheritance went to the stepmother's own sons. Bread, in a rabbi's house, was counted.
- התגלות Revelation Until that day he believed in the devil by halves — every book in his father's house taught that the visible world was the devil's work. Two hundred words on the day that broke.
- בין השמשות Twilight Past thirteen he walks out alone at dusk — companions mean levity, and every twitch of a finger below is written down above. Twilight, in both senses.
- בדרך רחוקה On a Distant Road On a Friday afternoon, everyone washed for Shabbat, his mother presses a twenty-kopeck coin into his hand: go, children, buy yourselves something good. The long road starts there.
- ״גויים ואלוהיו״ Nations and Its God A backwater town asking no questions and keeping no great accounts — and one boy at the study house who begins to ask. The Haskalah arrives as a disturbance of the peace.
- העוורת The Blind Woman Before the wedding they tell blind Hannah that her groom is a widowed tobacco merchant, and childless. Each detail is arranged for her, and she is the only one who cannot check.
- אריה ״בעל גוף״ Aryeh the Brute Bialik's one sustained prose portrait: Aryeh the timber dealer, all body, out at dawn in his underclothes to look in on his horse. Vocalized, so the reading is decided for you.
- קוצו של יוד The Tip of the Yod 'Hebrew woman, who knows your life?' The angriest poem of the Haskalah: a woman's whole release fails on the tip of one letter. Vocalized verse, at full temper.
- שני ימים ולילה אחד בבית מלון אורחים Two Days and One Night at an Inn Gordon's narrator finishes his business in Vilna, sets out for home, and gets no farther than an inn. Two days of enforced company, observed without mercy.
- לאן Whither? The Haskalah's great crisis novella: Nachman, a rabbi's son, loses the old world before any new one will have him — asked by a writer who died at twenty-four.
- בעמק הבכא In the Vale of Tears Mendele's longest book: Hershele grows up in Kabtsiel, town of beggars, and the vale of tears earns its name slowly. The author's own Hebrew of his Yiddish Wishing-Ring.
- לא זה הדרך This Is Not the Way His first essay and already the brakes: settlement without preparing hearts is not the way. The article cultural Zionism was founded on.
- אמת מארץ ישראל Truth from the Land of Israel Back from his first visit: what the land actually looked like in 1891, including the sentence about its inhabitants that is still being quoted. Truth treated as a genre.
- עבדות בתוך חירות Slavery in Freedom Against the emancipated Jews of the West: their freedom, he argues, is paid for with an inner slavery no eastern Jew would accept. The most quarrelled-with essay on this shelf.
- חצי נחמה Half a Consolation On the blood libel: the one accusation so perfectly false that it frees us from measuring ourselves by the world's opinion of us. Half a consolation, and he means it.
- בין קודש לחול Between Sacred and Profane Three pages on the difference: in the profane, the end endears the means and the means get swapped at need; in the sacred, the means outlive the end.
- מוקדם ומאוחר בחיים Early and Late in Life Laws, the lawyers know, can arrive before their hour or after it — and so can ideas, and so can movements. A question put, deliberately, to his own.
- עבר ועתיד Past and Future The self is memory joined to expectation — a nation no less. Philosophy in two pages, none of them wasted.
- חיקוי והתבוללות Imitation and Assimilation Imitation is how cultures learn; assimilation is imitation with the self left out. The distinction the rest of his argument stands on.
- כהן ונביא Priest and Prophet Two forces, as in mechanics: the prophet who will not compromise, and the priest who makes the compromise livable. History drawn as a diagram of vectors.
- משה Moses His Moses is not the man the scholars dig for but the one the nation made — which, he argues, is the truer historical fact. The essay every argument about memory borrows from.
- רבי דוב Reb Dov Reb Dov: gross, heavy, hairy from sole to crown like one pelt, a glutton and — worse — a licker of sweets. A portrait done with the whole brush.
- שני תרנגולים Two Roosters Max Berliant rides the Lodz–Moscow line often enough to know every station buffet-keeper by name. A travel sketch with two roosters in it.
- פסח שנשבת A Passover Undone A story he wrote for children: the boy's holiday clothes are with Israel the tailor — deaf in both ears — and Passover is coming faster than the sewing.
- יוסל הגנן Yosel the Gardener A tale that begins in festivity and ends in grief, as the subtitle warns. Shavuot greenery, and Yosel who grows it.
- ספר הכפרות The Book of Atonements Dedicated to Bialik: on Rosh Hashana the sins go into the river, and somewhere a ledger of atonements is opened. Satire in ritual clothing.
- חברבר החצרוני Khavarbar the Yard Dog Khavarbar the courtyard dog — spotted, speckled, streaked, humble, never bit anyone. A dog's life inside the Pale, told from fur level.
- שימלה Shimele Shimele the brother stands before the teller's eyes as if alive: black bristling hair, burning eyes, a too-quick tongue. Remembered by the one who outlived him.
- פסח מוקדם An Early Passover In the venerable German-Jewish community of Kislon nobody inquires beyond their depth. Then Passover comes early one year — for one man.
- הפילוסוף The Philosopher Not a tale of the good old days, the author swears at the door — his philosopher is strictly contemporary, and so is the joke.
- האשכנזי The German Jew Every generation gets the Jew it deserves: after the age of the tax-farmers comes the 'Ashkenazi', the German one. A type study.
- האוצר The Treasure The Mazepevkers are famous givers — money like ashes, shekels like ants, an open hand to every taker. Word of a treasure does the rest.
- בשביל צנון אחד For One Radish Khmelnitsk sits proudly outside the Pale, and Jews trade there anyway — some richly. What one radish costs them is the story.
- עלילת דם Blood Libel No fantasy this time, the author swears, on any holy object you care to name: a blood libel, told as fact because it nearly was one.
- מערת הנביאים The Cave of the Prophets What the archimandrite said, word for word and nothing added, about the cave of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Jerusalem reporting, 1880s.
- עשה ואל תשב! Do, and Do Not Sit! The Sultan honours the rabbi of Istanbul before all the ministers, and Ben-Yehuda draws his lesson in the title: do, and do not sit.
- הגדולה בגבורות המכבי The Maccabee's Greatest Feat A Hanukkah column: of all the Maccabee's feats of strength, the greatest was not a military one. One page, one argument.
- החלוקה ותולדותיה The Haluka and Its History The charity system that kept the old Yishuv, examined by the man who wanted it replaced with work. History written as indictment.
- ירושלם החדשה New Jerusalem Ride up toward the city and the first fine house on the right raises the question the whole piece answers: whose is it, and what is being built here?
- מה תהי אחרית כל אלה? What Will Come of All This? A government circular on the Jews, printed in full and then read closely. The question in the title was not rhetorical.
- יש תקוה! There Is Hope! Good news out of the Jewish Chronicle — if it is true, he adds, having been burned by airborne rumours before. Hope, verified like everything else.
- שאלה לוהטה A Burning Question A new child was born to statecraft in his century — small and despised at birth, soon remaking kingdoms — and the burning question is what it does to the Jews.
- עברים אנחנו! We Are Hebrews! Egypt made Israel forget its freedom before Moses could offer it back. A Passover argument about what we call ourselves: Hebrews.
- ועוד מוסר לא לקחנו! And Still We Have Not Learned! On the blood libels of the Middle Ages and the lesson still unlearned; Jeremiah supplies the epigraph — peace, peace, and there is no peace.
- על יהודה ועל ירושלם On Judea and Jerusalem A reply to the editor of the Havatselet, mid-war — Jerusalem's war over enlightenment, fought column by column. Polemic at close range.
- על דבר החינוך On Education His second essay on schooling, printed by an editor who disagreed with every word and said so in the introduction. The schools he wanted, argued for.
- המבטא בלשון העברית The Pronunciation of Hebrew The gap between the Land's Hebrew and the diaspora's is centuries old, he shows — and then he chooses a side. Where Israeli Hebrew's sound was argued into being.
- ההברה הנכונה בלשוננו The Correct Pronunciation A letter to an education journal on how the language should sound — kept short, he apologises, only for lack of time.
- הצעות חידושי מלים Proposed New Words Words he proposed in his newspapers between 1880 and 1900, in order: some are now unremarkable furniture of the language, some never took. The workshop floor.
- הלכות יסודי התורה Laws of the Foundations of the Torah Where the code begins: what exists, what may be said about it, and what a person is obliged to know before anything else.
- הלכות דעות Laws of Character Traits Temperament and the middle way — food, anger, company, and how a person is meant to carry themselves.
- הלכות תלמוד תורה Laws of Torah Study Who must learn, who must teach, and what a teacher owes a pupil. Short, and quoted more than most of the code.
- הלכות עבודה זרה Laws of Idolatry How idolatry began, in Maimonides' own account of it, and the long law against everything that follows from it.
- הלכות תשובה Laws of Repentance Ten chapters on turning, free will and what the world to come is. The part of the code people come back to, and the one they come back to before Yom Kippur.
- הלכות קריאת שמע Laws of Reciting the Shema When the Shema is said, how, and what counts as having said it. Four chapters, and the shortest way into the code.
- הלכות תפילה וברכת כהנים Laws of Prayer and the Priestly Blessing How the fixed prayers came to be fixed, and the whole order of a service set down as law. Read it beside the siddur on this shelf.
- הלכות שבת Laws of the Sabbath Thirty chapters, the longest section here: the thirty-nine labours, and what each of them turns out to mean.
- הלכות שביתת עשור Laws of Rest on Yom Kippur The law of the fast itself, in three chapters.
- הלכות שופר וסוכה ולולב Laws of the Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav The three objects the autumn festivals turn on, and what makes each of them fit to use.
- הלכות תעניות Laws of Fast Days Why a community fasts, and the four fasts that remember the destruction.
- הלכות מתנות עניים Laws of Gifts to the Poor The law of charity, including the eight degrees of giving that everybody has heard quoted and few have read.
- הלכות מלכים ומלחמות Laws of Kings and Wars The last section of the code: kingship, just war, the seven laws the Noahides are held to, and the two chapters on the messiah that close it.
- ספר הכוזרי, מאמר ראשון The Kuzari, Part One A king dreams that his intention is right and his action wrong, and sends for a philosopher, a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew. The argument that follows is the book.
- ספר הכוזרי, מאמר שני The Kuzari, Part Two The rabbi on the land, the language and the people — and the king's objection that a scattered nation has little to be proud of.
- ספר הכוזרי, מאמר שלישי The Kuzari, Part Three What a pious life actually consists of, hour by hour, and a long defence of the oral law against the Karaites.
- ספר הכוזרי, מאמר רביעי The Kuzari, Part Four The names of God, and the distance between the God of Abraham and the God of Aristotle.
- ספר הכוזרי, מאמר חמישי The Kuzari, Part Five Philosophy answered on its own ground. The book closes with the rabbi leaving for the land of Israel.
- מסילת ישרים The Path of the Just A ladder of nine traits climbed over twenty-six chapters: each rung named, explained, then argued for against the objection a reader would actually raise. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער הייחוד Duties of the Heart, First Treatise: Unity What it means to hold that God is one with a whole heart, and why Bahya wants it reasoned out rather than only repeated: the proofs, set out in order. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער הביטחון Duties of the Heart, Fourth Treatise: Trust What it is to rely on God, what makes someone worth relying on, and how trust sits beside working for a living. The treatise most often read on its own. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער ייחוד המעשה Duties of the Heart, Fifth Treatise: Wholehearted Devotion Doing a deed for God alone: what pulls an act toward being seen, and how the inclination argues for it. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער הכניעה Duties of the Heart, Sixth Treatise: Humility Humility before God and before people: what it is, what it is not, and how to tell it from weakness. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער התשובה Duties of the Heart, Seventh Treatise: Repentance What returning takes: regret, leaving the act, confessing it and resolving not to go back, with what stands in the way of each. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער חשבון הנפש Duties of the Heart, Eighth Treatise: Examining the Soul The ways a person can take account of themselves, set out one by one in the longest chapter of the book. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער הפרישות Duties of the Heart, Ninth Treatise: Abstinence Where restraint belongs and where it stops: the ascetic path weighed against the ordinary one, and the middle Bahya argues for. Fully vocalized.
- חובות הלבבות, שער אהבת ה׳ Duties of the Heart, Tenth Treatise: Love of God The last gate, and the one the others lead to: what love of God is, how it is reached, and how it shows in a life. Fully vocalized.
- תפילת שחרית Weekday Shacharit The weekday morning service, whole and in order, from Modeh Ani to the psalm of the day.
- תפילת מנחה Weekday Minchah The afternoon service: Ashrei, the Amidah, and very little else. Ten minutes of Hebrew a great many people say every day.
- מעריב Weekday Maariv The evening service, with the blessings of the Shema and the bedtime Shema after it.
- ברכות Berakhot When the Shema is said and what is said over food. The one tractate of this order that is not about farming, and the way most people meet the Mishnah.
- פאה Peah The corner of the field left standing, and everything else a harvest owes the poor.
- דמאי Demai Produce bought from somebody who may not have tithed it, and what a careful buyer does about that.
- כלאים Kilayim What may not be sown, worn or yoked together. The law of mixtures, worked out in a field.
- שביעית Sheviit The seventh year: the land rests, and the debts go.
- תרומות Terumot The priest's portion — how much, from what, and what happens when it falls back into the pile.
- מעשרות Maasrot When produce becomes food, which is when it starts owing a tithe.
- מעשר שני Maaser Sheni The tithe eaten in Jerusalem, and how to carry a field's worth of fruit there as money.
- חלה Challah The portion taken from dough. Short, and the one obligation of this order still kept in most kitchens.
- ערלה Orlah A tree's first three years, when nothing it grows may be used.
- ביכורים Bikkurim The first fruits carried up in a basket, and the declaration made with them.
- שבת Shabbat The thirty-nine labours, named in one famous mishnah and unpacked across twenty-four chapters.
- עירובין Eruvin How a courtyard is made one place, so that Shabbat can be carried across it.
- פסחים Pesachim Leaven, the offering, and the seder — including the four questions, in the form they were first written down.
- שקלים Shekalim The half-shekel, and the accounts of the Temple that lived off it.
- יומא Yoma The Day of Atonement, hour by hour, as the High Priest kept it.
- סוכה Sukkah What makes a booth a booth, what makes a lulav fit, and the water-drawing celebration nobody who saw it forgot.
- ביצה Beitzah An egg laid on a festival, and everything the question opens onto: what may be done on a holiday and what may not.
- ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah The new moon, the witnesses who came to testify to it, and the shofar.
- תענית Ta'anit What a community does when the rain does not come.
- מגילה Megillah Reading Esther, and the rules of reading in public that come out of it.
- מועד קטן Moed Katan The intermediate days of a festival — half holiday, half not — and mourning.
- חגיגה Chagigah The pilgrimage offering, and the three chapters that end with what may not be expounded in public.
- יבמות Yevamot Levirate marriage, and the hardest tractate in the order: every case turns on who is forbidden to whom.
- כתובות Ketubot The marriage contract — what a wife is owed, and what she is owed if it ends.
- נדרים Nedarim Vows: how a person binds themselves with a word, and how the word is undone.
- נזיר Nazir The nazirite vow — no wine, no razor, no corpse — and how long it lasts.
- סוטה Sotah The suspected wife and the ordeal, and then a long list of the things that ceased.
- גיטין Gittin The bill of divorce: how it is written, how it is delivered, and what makes it void.
- קידושין Kiddushin How a marriage begins. Four chapters, and the last of them is about lineage and about which trade to teach a son.
- בבא קמא Bava Kamma The first gate: an ox that gores, a pit left open, a fire that spreads.
- בבא מציעא Bava Metzia The middle gate: found property, loans, hired hands, and who is believed.
- בבא בתרא Bava Batra The last gate: neighbours, boundaries, sales and inheritance.
- סנהדרין Sanhedrin The courts, capital cases, and the chapter that begins \u201call Israel has a share in the world to come\u201d.
- מכות Makkot Lashes, false witnesses, and the cities of refuge. Three chapters, and it ends in consolation.
- שבועות Shevuot Oaths: which ones a court imposes, which a person takes on themselves, and what breaking one costs.
- עדיות Eduyot Testimonies collected on one day, arranged by who said them rather than by subject.
- עבודה זרה Avodah Zarah Living beside idolatry: what may be traded, eaten and used, and what may not.
- אבות Pirkei Avot The chain of transmission and what each link said. No law in it at all, and the most read of the sixty-three.
- הוריות Horayot A court that ruled wrongly, and what is owed when a whole community acted on it.
- זבחים Zevachim Animal offerings: where each was slaughtered, whose blood went where, and what a wrong intention does to it.
- מנחות Menachot Meal offerings, and the chapters on tzitzit and tefillin that sit at the end of them.
- חולין Chullin Slaughter outside the Temple — which makes it the tractate of this order that is still practised daily.
- בכורות Bekhorot Firstborn animals and firstborn sons, and the blemishes that disqualify.
- ערכין Arakhin Valuations: what a person is worth when they are pledged to the Temple, at a fixed rate by age.
- תמורה Temurah Substituting one offering for another, which does not work and makes both holy.
- כריתות Keritot The thirty-six offences punished by being cut off, and the offerings brought in doubt.
- מעילה Meilah Using what belongs to the Temple, by accident, and what putting it right costs.
- תמיד Tamid The daily offering, told as a morning: the lots, the doors, the ash, the lamb.
- מדות Middot The measurements of the Temple. A description of a building, by people who had seen it.
- קינים Kinnim Bird offerings that got mixed up. Three chapters of pure combinatorics, and famously the hardest short thing here.
- כלים Kelim Vessels: what can become unclean and what cannot. Thirty chapters, the longest tractate in the Mishnah.
- אהלות Oholot A corpse under a roof, and how far the roof carries the defilement.
- נגעים Negaim The skin affliction of Leviticus, examined the way a priest would examine it.
- פרה Parah The red heifer, its ashes, and the water made from them.
- טהרות Tahorot The lesser degrees of uncleanness, and food that carries them.
- מקואות Mikvaot What makes an immersion pool valid: how much water, from where, and drawn or not.
- נדה Niddah Menstrual purity — the one tractate of this order that stayed in force after the Temple fell.
- מכשירין Makhshirin The seven liquids that make food able to become unclean, and whether the wetting was wanted.
- זבים Zavim Discharges, the counting that follows, and what a person in that state makes unclean by leaning on it.
- טבול יום Tevul Yom Somebody who has immersed and is waiting for nightfall: clean enough for some things, not for others.
- ידים Yadayim Washing the hands, and the argument about which books make them unclean — which is how the canon got recorded.
- עוקצין Oktzin Stalks and husks: whether the inedible part of a fruit carries uncleanness to the part that is eaten.
- ירמיהו Jeremiah Forty years of warning nobody wanted, and the fall he lived to see.
- יחזקאל Ezekiel Visions in exile: the chariot, the valley of dry bones, and a temple measured to the cubit.
- הושע Hosea A marriage as a figure for a covenant, and some of the hardest Hebrew in the Prophets.
- יואל Joel Locusts, and the day of the Lord. Four chapters, and Peter quotes the third.
- עמוס Amos A herdsman from Tekoa on what a country owes its poor. Plain, and merciless.
- מיכה Micah Judgement and the famous answer to it: to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly.
- נחמיה Nehemiah Rebuilding the wall, in the first person, with the objections written down.
- דברי הימים א I Chronicles Nine chapters of genealogy, then David again — the same reign told for a people starting over.
- דברי הימים ב II Chronicles Solomon to the exile, and it ends mid-sentence with permission to go home.
- בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereshit Genesis 1:1-6:8. 146 verses, seven aliyot.
- נֹחַ Noach Genesis 6:9-11:32. 153 verses, seven aliyot.
- לֶךְ־לְךָ Lech-Lecha Genesis 12:1-17:27. 126 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיֵּרָא Vayera Genesis 18:1-22:24. 147 verses, seven aliyot.
- חַיֵּי שָֹרָה Chayei Sara Genesis 23:1-25:18. 105 verses, seven aliyot.
- תּוֹלְדוֹת Toldot Genesis 25:19-28:9. 106 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיֵּצֵא Vayetzei Genesis 28:10-32:3. 148 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיִּשְׁלַח Vayishlach Genesis 32:4-36:43. 153 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיֵּשֶׁב Vayeshev Genesis 37:1-40:23; Numbers 7:1-17. 112 verses, seven aliyot.
- מִקֵּץ Miketz Genesis 41:1-44:17; Numbers 7:54-8:4. 146 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיִּגַּשׁ Vayigash Genesis 44:18-47:27. 106 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיְחִי Vayechi Genesis 47:28-50:26. 85 verses, seven aliyot.
- שְׁמוֹת Shemot Exodus 1:1-6:1. 124 verses, seven aliyot.
- וָאֵרָא Vaera Exodus 6:2-9:35. 121 verses, seven aliyot.
- בֹּא Bo Exodus 10:1-13:16. 106 verses, seven aliyot.
- בְּשַׁלַּח Beshalach Exodus 13:17-17:16. 116 verses, seven aliyot.
- יִתְרוֹ Yitro Exodus 18:1-20:23. 75 verses, seven aliyot.
- מִשְׁפָּטִים Mishpatim Exodus 21:1-24:18, 30:11-16. 118 verses, seven aliyot.
- תְּרוּמָה Terumah Exodus 25:1-27:19. 96 verses, seven aliyot.
- תְּצַוֶּה Tetzaveh Exodus 27:20-30:10; Deuteronomy 25:17-19. 101 verses, seven aliyot.
- כִּי תִשָּׂא Ki Tisa Exodus 30:11-34:35; Numbers 19:1-22. 139 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיַּקְהֵל Vayakhel Exodus 35:1-38:20, 30:11-16. 122 verses, seven aliyot.
- פְקוּדֵי Pekudei Exodus 38:21-40:38. 92 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיִּקְרָא Vayikra Leviticus 1:1-5:26. 111 verses, seven aliyot.
- צַו Tzav Leviticus 6:1-8:36. 97 verses, seven aliyot.
- שְּׁמִינִי Shmini Leviticus 9:1-11:47. 91 verses, seven aliyot.
- תַזְרִיעַ Tazria Leviticus 12:1-13:59. 67 verses, seven aliyot.
- מְצֹרָע Metzora Leviticus 14:1-15:33. 90 verses, seven aliyot.
- אַחֲרֵי מוֹת Achrei Mot Leviticus 16:1-18:30. 80 verses, seven aliyot.
- קְדֹשִׁים Kedoshim Leviticus 19:1-20:27; Numbers 28:9-15. 64 verses, seven aliyot.
- אֱמוֹר Emor Leviticus 21:1-24:23. 124 verses, seven aliyot.
- בְּהַר Behar Leviticus 25:1-26:2. 57 verses, seven aliyot.
- בְּחֻקֹּתַי Bechukotai Leviticus 26:3-27:34. 78 verses, seven aliyot.
- בְּמִדְבַּר Bamidbar Numbers 1:1-4:20. 159 verses, seven aliyot.
- נָשׂא Nasso Numbers 4:21-7:89. 176 verses, seven aliyot.
- בְּהַעֲלֹתְךָ Beha'alotcha Numbers 8:1-12:16. 136 verses, seven aliyot.
- שְׁלַח־לְךָ Sh'lach Numbers 13:1-15:41. 119 verses, seven aliyot.
- קֹרַח Korach Numbers 16:1-18:32. 95 verses, seven aliyot.
- חֻקַּת Chukat Numbers 19:1-22:1. 87 verses, seven aliyot.
- בָּלָק Balak Numbers 22:2-25:9. 104 verses, seven aliyot.
- פִּינְחָס Pinchas Numbers 25:10-30:1. 168 verses, seven aliyot.
- מַטּוֹת Matot Numbers 30:2-32:42. 112 verses, seven aliyot.
- מַסְעֵי Masei Numbers 33:1-36:13. 132 verses, seven aliyot.
- דְּבָרִים Devarim Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22. 105 verses, seven aliyot.
- וָאֶתְחַנַּן Vaetchanan Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11. 122 verses, seven aliyot.
- עֵקֶב Eikev Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25. 111 verses, seven aliyot.
- רְאֵה Re'eh Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. 126 verses, seven aliyot.
- שׁוֹפְטִים Shoftim Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9. 97 verses, seven aliyot.
- כִּי־תֵצֵא Ki Teitzei Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19. 110 verses, seven aliyot.
- כִּי־תָבוֹא Ki Tavo Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8. 122 verses, seven aliyot.
- נִצָּבִים Nitzavim Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20. 40 verses, seven aliyot.
- וַיֵּלֶךְ Vayeilech Deuteronomy 31:1-30. 30 verses, seven aliyot.
- הַאֲזִינוּ Ha'azinu Deuteronomy 32:1-52. 52 verses, seven aliyot.
- וְזֹאת הַבְּרָכָה V'Zot HaBerachah Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12. 41 verses, seven aliyot.
- משוואות אי-שוויון עם ערכים מוחלטים Absolute Value Inequalities Inequalities with absolute values, worked line by line. The plainest Hebrew here: a small vocabulary that repeats until it sticks.
- הסתברות - הכרות בסיסית Basic Probability Probability from nothing — coins, dice, and what the fraction is counting. The terms come back in every later lesson.
- כוח משיכה - מבוא (הקדמה) Introduction to Gravity Why things fall and why the moon does not. Assumes no physics and says so.
- חישוב מהירות ממוצעת Calculating Average Velocity or Speed Distance over time, taken slowly. The Hebrew of a physics classroom in its plainest form.
- אלקטרוסטטיקה (חלק 1): מבוא למטען, חלקיק וחוק קולון Electrostatics, part 1 Charge, the particle and Coulomb's law, from the beginning. The first of two parts.
- משרעת, זמן מחזור, תדירות ואורך גל של גלים מחזוריים Amplitude, Period, Frequency and Wavelength The four words a wave is described with, and how each is read off a graph.
- שרטוט אי-שוויונים Graphing Inequalities Drawing an inequality on axes. Eight minutes, and mostly the same dozen words.
- הוכחת הנגזרות של Ln(x) ושל e^x Proofs of the Derivatives of ln(x) and e^x Where two derivatives everyone memorises actually come from, proved rather than stated.
- זורמים 1 Fluids, part 1 Pressure in a liquid, and why it is depth that matters and not shape.
- החוק הראשון של התרמודינמיקה / אנרגיה פנימית The First Law of Thermodynamics Internal energy, heat and work, and the law tying them together. The longest lesson here.
- נוסחת שטח מעגל חוסם - הוכחה Area Circumradius Formula Proof A proof, start to finish: a triangle's area from the circle around it. The Hebrew a proof is written in.
- זווית אופטימלית לקליע חלק 1 Optimal Angle for a Projectile, part 1 Which angle throws something furthest, and where the answer comes from. Five minutes.
- שימור אנרגיה Conservation of Energy Energy changes form and never goes anywhere, worked through a falling block.
- הכירו את הלב Meet the Heart How blood crosses the heart, chamber by chamber. The most watched lesson on the Hebrew channel by a wide margin.
- מבוא למומנט הסיבוב Introduction to Torque Turning force, and why a longer spanner is easier. The arithmetic is done aloud.
- מבוא לנשימה תאית Introduction to Cellular Respiration How a cell gets energy out of glucose, in outline before any of the detail.
- תגובה דלקתית Inflammatory Response What happens at a cut: which cells arrive, in what order, and what each is for.
- לוחות טקטוניים: תכונות גיאולוגיות של גבולות צלחת מתכנסת Plate Tectonics: Convergent Boundaries What happens where two plates meet — trenches, mountains, volcanoes. The only earth science on the shelf.
- דוגמא לבעיית סטויכיומטריה 1 Stoichiometry Example Problem 1 One stoichiometry problem worked from the balanced equation to the answer.
- סימון וקטור יחידה Unit Vector Notation Writing a vector in i, j and k. The densest vocabulary here for its length.
- תרגום אונקלוס על בראשית Targum Onkelos on Genesis Genesis in the Aramaic of Onkelos, which keeps close to the Hebrew verse for verse.
- תרגום אונקלוס על שמות Targum Onkelos on Exodus Exodus in the Aramaic of Onkelos, which keeps close to the Hebrew verse for verse.
- תרגום אונקלוס על ויקרא Targum Onkelos on Leviticus Leviticus in the Aramaic of Onkelos, which keeps close to the Hebrew verse for verse.
- תרגום אונקלוס על במדבר Targum Onkelos on Numbers Numbers in the Aramaic of Onkelos, which keeps close to the Hebrew verse for verse.
- תרגום אונקלוס על דברים Targum Onkelos on Deuteronomy Deuteronomy in the Aramaic of Onkelos, which keeps close to the Hebrew verse for verse.
- תרגום יונתן על בראשית Targum Jonathan on Genesis Genesis in the Aramaic of Pseudo-Jonathan, which retells the story as it translates it.
- תרגום יונתן על שמות Targum Jonathan on Exodus Exodus in the Aramaic of Pseudo-Jonathan, which retells the story as it translates it.
- תרגום יונתן על ויקרא Targum Jonathan on Leviticus Leviticus in the Aramaic of Pseudo-Jonathan, which retells the story as it translates it.
- תרגום יונתן על במדבר Targum Jonathan on Numbers Numbers in the Aramaic of Pseudo-Jonathan, which retells the story as it translates it.
- תרגום יונתן על דברים Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy Deuteronomy in the Aramaic of Pseudo-Jonathan, which retells the story as it translates it.
- תרגום יונתן על יהושע Targum Jonathan on Joshua Joshua in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על שופטים Targum Jonathan on Judges Judges in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על שמואל א Targum Jonathan on I Samuel I Samuel in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על שמואל ב Targum Jonathan on II Samuel II Samuel in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על מלכים א Targum Jonathan on I Kings I Kings in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על מלכים ב Targum Jonathan on II Kings II Kings in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על ישעיהו Targum Jonathan on Isaiah Isaiah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על ירמיהו Targum Jonathan on Jeremiah Jeremiah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על יחזקאל Targum Jonathan on Ezekiel Ezekiel in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על הושע Targum Jonathan on Hosea Hosea in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על יואל Targum Jonathan on Joel Joel in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על עמוס Targum Jonathan on Amos Amos in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על עובדיה Targum Jonathan on Obadiah Obadiah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על יונה Targum Jonathan on Jonah Jonah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על מיכה Targum Jonathan on Micah Micah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על נחום Targum Jonathan on Nahum Nahum in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על חבקוק Targum Jonathan on Habakkuk Habakkuk in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על צפניה Targum Jonathan on Zephaniah Zephaniah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על חגי Targum Jonathan on Haggai Haggai in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על זכריה Targum Jonathan on Zechariah Zechariah in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום יונתן על מלאכי Targum Jonathan on Malachi Malachi in the Aramaic of Targum Jonathan, the prophet as the synagogue heard him explained.
- תרגום תהלים The Targum to Psalms Psalms in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום משלי The Targum to Proverbs Proverbs in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום איוב The Targum to Job Job in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום על שיר השירים The Targum to Song of Songs Song of Songs in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום רות The Targum to Ruth Ruth in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום איכה The Targum to Lamentations Lamentations in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום קהלת The Targum to Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום אסתר The Targum to Esther Esther in Aramaic, often widened from a verse into a sermon.
- תרגום דברי הימים א The Targum to I Chronicles I Chronicles in its late Aramaic targum.
- תרגום דברי הימים ב The Targum to II Chronicles II Chronicles in its late Aramaic targum.
- Ci vediamo domani! See You Tomorrow A child says see you tomorrow to eight animals, and the next morning they are all at the door. One phrase, said again and again, in about fifty words.
- Colori Colours A white bear walks under a beehive and comes out every colour. Colours and parts of the body in about seventy words.
- Il ratto e il gatto Rat-Cat A cat chases a rat into a hole too small to follow. Forty-two words, all in the passato remoto.
- La luna e il cappello The Moon and The Cap The wind blows a boy's new cap into a tree, and that night the moon tries it on. Told in the passato prossimo, one short sentence at a time.
- È tutta colpa del gatto! It's All the Cat's Fault! A boy tells his teacher why he has no homework, and the excuse runs all the way back to a cat up a tree. A chain of things that would not have happened, and a gentle first meeting with the past conditional.
- Chi è il nostro amico? Who Is Our Friend? Rhino, Crocodile, Giraffe and Zebra each explain why a small bird is their best friend. Short sentences in the present tense, with non riesco a doing much of the work.
- Il grande libro dei mostri The Big Book of Boochandis A catalogue of monsters with claws, runny noses and bad manners. The English rhymes; the Italian keeps the list and lets the rhymes go.
- Croaky la rana Croaky the Frog A frog who can talk but cannot croak asks a dolphin, a rat and then a man how to make his own sound. A short fable in the passato remoto.
- L'elefante nella stanza The Elephant in the Room Lindi finds an elephant in her room, and every grown-up tells her elephants do not live in houses. Mostly dialogue, with lo sanno tutti as its refrain.
- Cosa c'è nella pentola? What's in the Pot? Sam fetches things for his mother's pot one at a time and tries to guess what supper will be. The words of a kitchen, with colours and shapes, mostly in dialogue.
- Buonanotte, Tinku! Goodnight, Tinku! A puppy who cannot sleep meets a firefly, a bat, a fox, an owl and a cricket. Each meeting runs on the same few lines, so by the fifth you read it on your own.
- Il vaso di caramelle di Chuchu Manthu Chuchu Manthu's Jar of Toffees Preet watches her favourite uncle secretly drop toffees to the schoolchildren under his window. A gentle story about kindness passed on, in the present tense.
- Un libro per Puchku A Book for Puchku Puchku has read every book in the house and goes looking for one more. A story about reading, in the present tense and full of dialogue.
- Perché le api ronzano? Why Do Bees Buzz? Why bees buzz, how they carry pollen and how they make honey, in short explanatory paragraphs. Nonfiction, with a few things to try at the end.
- Pishi sorpreso dalla tempesta Pishi Caught in a Storm A young manta ray loses his group in a storm and has to find them again. An adventure told in the imperfetto and the passato remoto.
- Gli affascinanti numeri di Fibonacci The Fascinating Fibonaccis Number patterns, the Fibonacci sequence and where it turns up in flowers. Nonfiction that explains as it goes, in the language of a maths lesson.
- C'è un buco nella mia galassia There's a Hole in my Galaxy Three friends borrow a rocket ship to visit Pluto and fly into trouble near a black hole. Science fiction with real astronomy explained along the way.
- Kaakaasauro Kaakaasaurus A crow steals Raji's snack and, as she chases it, turns back into a dinosaur. Quick and funny, with a page at the end on how birds came from dinosaurs.
- In viaggio per il mondo con un peperoncino Around the World With a Chilli The spirit of a chilli plant tells a boy how the chilli travelled the world to reach his garden. The longest book here, at about four thousand words.
- Esame CELI: tutto quello che devi sapere The CELI exam: everything you need to know A teacher walks you through the CELI exam: its six levels, where to sit it, what it costs and how to prepare. Clear classroom Italian about a test you may take yourself.
- L'Accademia della Crusca: la più antica accademia linguistica del mondo The Accademia della Crusca, the oldest language academy in the world A Florentine teacher starts at a Medici villa and tells you how the Crusca came to guard the Italian language. Unhurried speech, with the history of the words you are learning.
- Trinità – Masaccio Masaccio's Holy Trinity Two and a half minutes on the fresco where Western painting first found convincing depth. The narrator shows you the vanishing point and why it sits at your eye level.
- Dittico Wilton The Wilton Diptych The portable altarpiece painted for Richard II, panel by panel: the gold, the relief and why so few works like it survive. Short, precise sentences about one object.
- William Turner – La valorosa Temeraire Turner's The Fighting Temeraire A veteran of Trafalgar towed to the breaker's yard by a steam tug, and what Turner made of it. The narration moves from naval history to how the paint was laid on.
- Lorenzo Lotto: vita e opere in 10 punti Lorenzo Lotto's life and work in ten points Ten short stops through the life of a Venetian painter who never settled anywhere. You follow him from Treviso to the Vatican to the Marche, one work at a time.
- Van Gogh Museum di Amsterdam The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam A walk through the museum's rooms, from the dark peasant paintings to the wheatfield with crows. Each painting gets a few sentences, so the vocabulary turns over quickly.
- Basilica di San Pietro St Peter's Basilica The square, the obelisk, the dome and the long list of popes and architects who built them. Dense with names and numbers, and read at a steady pace.
- La WikiGuida di Wikipedia A guide to Wikipedia How anyone can edit Wikipedia, and how the community keeps it reliable. Plain, carefully written narration in the Italian of everyday instructions.
- La WikiGuida di Wikimedia Commons A guide to Wikimedia Commons What Wikimedia Commons holds, how its free licences work and how you can add a photo of your own. Slow, clear narration full of useful words for pictures and places.
- La WikiGuida di Wikisource A guide to Wikisource How volunteers transcribe and proofread books for Wikisource, and how you can join them. The same clear narration as the other guides, about the library these readers draw on.
- 8 marzo: la protezione civile di tutte, con tutte 8 March: the women of civil protection Six women at the Department introduce themselves and say what their work means to them. Two minutes of short, natural sentences, from a geologist to a logistics officer.
- La scienza nel futuro della protezione civile: intervista a Mauro Dolce Science in the future of civil protection: an interview with Mauro Dolce An engineer explains how scientists work with civil protection, from forecasting risk to rebuilding afterwards. Spoken in long, unscripted sentences.
- Le attività dell'Italian Field Hospital a Mansehra in Pakistan The Italian field hospital at Mansehra, Pakistan After the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, Italy sent a field hospital to Mansehra. The report follows it from the first decision to the day it was handed over.
- Conferenza stampa del 5 febbraio 2020 – Coronavirus Press conference on the coronavirus, 5 February 2020 The head of civil protection briefs journalists in the first weeks of the coronavirus: airport screening, returning students and a new scientific committee. Sixteen minutes of official spoken Italian, with questions from the floor.
- 10 regole per una voce sana Ten rules for a healthy voice A voice specialist gives ten rules for keeping your voice healthy: speak slowly, pause for breath, and do not talk while you exercise. Practical advice in plain, clinical Italian.
- Papilloma virus: l'importanza della prevenzione HPV and why prevention matters A doctor explains what HPV does, who it affects and why the vaccine matters. Medical vocabulary, introduced with care.
- Covid-19 e gravidanza: visite e controlli sono sicuri? Covid-19 and pregnancy: are check-ups safe? An obstetrician answers one question from 2021: should a pregnant woman still go to her check-ups during the pandemic. Under two minutes, spoken straight to you.
- Due amiche in aeroporto Two friends at the airport Two old friends meet by chance at an airport. You hear everyday sayings in a real conversation, then Angela explains each one.
- Paure della vita Fears in life A personal talk: Angela names the fears she has lived with, from being too young to never being good enough, and what one sentence taught her.
- Ma dai, ma va, boh Ma dai, ma va, boh Short expressions that colour everyday Italian. Angela shows you when each one fits and the face that goes with it.
- Un invito a cena An invitation to dinner A short conversation: an old friend invites you to dinner, and you hear how to accept or decline politely.
- La preposizione a The preposition a Why you go in Italia but a Roma: Angela sets out the uses of a and fixes the mistake she hears most.
- Posto, a posto, apposto Posto, a posto and apposto One word, three spellings. Angela explains when each is right, from a posto to apposto on a contract, and where tutto a posto fits.
- La parola viaggio The word viaggio Mettersi in viaggio, buon viaggio, viaggio di nozze: Angela walks you through the phrases built on one noun.
- La parola proprio The word proprio Proprio can mean one's own, exactly or precisely. Angela shows you each meaning in a sentence.
- In Canada sono una donna bianca In Canada I am a white woman Angela tells you what it was like to be the one who is different after moving to Canada. A thoughtful talk in natural Italian.
- Gli avverbi più comuni The most common adverbs Angela sorts everyday adverbs into groups: time, place, quantity and manner. Each one comes with a short sentence you can say straight away.
- Quattro errori con le preposizioni Four mistakes with prepositions Angela corrects the four preposition mistakes she hears most from her students, and tells you why each is wrong.
- Durante e mentre Durante and mentre One simple rule: mentre takes a verb, durante takes a noun. Angela gives you plenty of examples of both.
- Fare domande in italiano Asking questions in Italian Chi, dove, come, quando, perché: Angela shows you the question words and how much intonation carries on its own.
- Be free, be positive Be free, be positive Ten years in Canada taught Angela to say two English phrases to herself. She tells you, in Italian, what they came to mean.
- Perché YouTube Why YouTube Angela talks about a year of making videos, the followers who came and the payout that did not, and why she keeps going.
- Ma e però Ma and però Angela shows you that ma opens the second clause while però can also close it, and why the accent on però keeps you away from a pear tree.
- La preposizione di The preposition di Angela explains the uses of di, then the verbs that take it, such as dimenticare di, finire di and smettere di.
- I numeri in italiano Numbers in Italian Angela reads the numbers from her own time on YouTube: video lengths, follower counts, the time she records. You hear numbers the way Italians say them.
- Il verbo partire The verb partire Partire means to leave, but a car that won't start and partire in quarta use it too. Angela shows you each meaning.
- Dentro e fuori Inside and outside Angela shows you dentro and fuori, why è dentro in casa is wrong, and the other jobs fuori can do in a sentence.
- Quando, dove e come When, where and how Three small adverbs you use all day. Angela explains each one and ends with two idioms: come no and vieni come sei.
- Ne e né Ne and né Angela tells a story about her commute to show you ne as a pronoun, then né as the word for neither and nor.
- Ho smesso con il caffè I gave up coffee Fifteen minutes of unhurried talk about coffee culture in Canada and Italy, and what two months without a cup did to Angela.
- Comprare i biglietti del treno Buying train tickets A slow, clear dialogue at the ticket desk in Roma Termini: times, seats, a return ticket and paying by card.
- Il presente per parlare del futuro The present tense for the future Italians often talk about tomorrow in the present tense. Angela shows you the time words that make it work.
- Sempre e mai Always and never Angela shows you where sempre and mai go in a sentence, and why mai needs non before the verb.
- Non dire: stai zitta Don't say "stai zitta" Angela explains why stai zitta is offensive in any context, and gives you other ways to ask someone to stop talking.
- Avanti, davanti, indietro e dietro Forward, in front, back and behind Four words that are easy to confuse. Angela uses parking a car and standing in a queue to show you each one.
- Molto Molto Angela explains when molto changes to agree with a noun and when it stays the same, and the words you can use in its place.
- La preposizione in The preposition in Angela goes through the rules of in one by one: countries and regions, words ending in -teca, and every kind of transport.
- Ti va? Do you feel like it? Angela takes the everyday question ti va and shows you the verb andare behind it, then the verbs you can swap in for it.
- Una conversazione al bar A conversation at the bar Two short dialogues at an Italian bar, the same order said two ways. Read along and say them out loud.
- Posso, potrei e le alternative a vorrei Posso, potrei and other ways to say vorrei Saying vorrei every time can sound basic. Angela gives you posso, potrei and è possibile avere to use instead.
- Andare a, da, in Andare with a, da and in Angela explains which preposition follows andare: a for places and cities, in for countries and transport, da for people.
- L'articolo lo The article lo Lo piede, lo caffè: Angela corrects the article learners overuse and shows you the words that really take lo.
- Gli articoli i, gli, le The plural articles i, gli and le Angela shows you when a plural takes i, gli or le, and why famiglia and familiare are spelled differently.
- Frasi con andare Phrases with andare Andare is not only about going somewhere. Angela shows you come va and the everyday phrases where it means something else.
- Bello, bei, begli Bello and its forms Earrings, rings and a bottle-green jumper: Angela walks you through every form bello takes before a noun.
- Come usare ci How to use ci Angela explains the small word ci, as a pronoun and as a word for a place already named, with plenty of short examples.
- Come usare che How to use che Che bello, che fai, penso che: Angela takes you through the jobs che does in everyday Italian.
- Il passato prossimo con essere The passato prossimo with essere Ho andato or sono andata? Angela gives you a picture to remember which verbs take essere.
- Del, dello, della Del, dello and della Angela shows you how di joins the article to make del, dello, della and the rest, and what they mean before a noun.
- Il passato prossimo con avere The passato prossimo with avere Angela builds the everyday past tense with avere and shows you how its past participle is formed.
- Zucchero, ghiaccio, sciarpa Sugar, ice and scarf Angela practises the sounds learners find hardest, z, chi, ghi, gli and sci, with words like zucchero, ghiaccio and sciarpa.
- Qua, que, qui, quo Qua, que, qui, quo Quadro, quercia, quaderno: Angela practises the Italian q with you, and why it never goes anywhere without u.
- La C e la CH C and CH Casa, cena, ciao: Angela practises the three sounds of the Italian c with you, word by word.
- Donne che hanno cambiato il mondo Women who changed the world Windscreen wipers, correction fluid and the bra: three everyday objects invented by women. You learn the Italian words for things you use without naming.
- Pizza da asporto Takeaway pizza A short phone call to a pizzeria: four takeaway pizzas, what goes on them and when to collect them.
- Voglio o vorrei Voglio or vorrei Angela shows you the difference between voglio and vorrei, and when each one is the polite choice.
- Il prefisso ri- The prefix ri- Don't say ti chiamo indietro. Angela shows you how ri- turns chiamare into richiamare, and the verbs that work the same way.
- L'alfabeto con Gianni Rodari The alphabet with Gianni Rodari Angela recites a nursery rhyme by Gianni Rodari to practise the Italian alphabet, and tells you who he was.
- Capire e i verbi in -isc- Capire and the -isc- verbs Angela conjugates capire beside dormire so you can see where the -isc- goes and where it does not.
- Aperitivo e apericena Aperitivo and apericena Angela tells you how the aperitivo began in Turin in 1786 and how it grew into the apericena.
- L'imperfetto The imperfect tense Angela tells you about her childhood summers in Calabria and her scooter in Rome to show when Italian reaches for the imperfect.
- Preferire, gradire, desiderare Preferire, gradire and desiderare Three polite alternatives to vorrei. Angela explains the shade of meaning each one carries.
- Bruschetta, stuzzicadenti, aiuola Bruschetta, toothpick, flowerbed Three words that trip up learners: bruschetta, stuzzicadenti and aiuola. Angela says them with you and shows you what each one is.
- L'albero di Natale per me My Christmas tree Angela describes the dry branch her family decorates each Christmas, with plenty of adjectives and the preposition di.
- Proverbi con fare Proverbs with fare Chi fa da sé fa per tre and other proverbs built on fare, each with its English equivalent.
- A metà tra due lingue In between two languages Angela talks about learning a language without a talent for it, her shyness in English, and why her channel starts from mistakes.
- Essere o stare Essere or stare Angela explains in Italian and English why essere and stare confuse learners, and pictures essere as a fixed date on the calendar.
- Bubble tea: la bibita taiwanese che è diventata una prelibatezza globale Bubble Tea, From Taiwan to the World Two tea houses fought in court for ten years over who invented bubble tea, and the judge said it did not matter. How the drink became part of being Taiwanese.
- Incontro con i maestosi cavalli Akhal-Teke, l'orgoglio nazionale del Turkmenistan The Akhal-Teke Horses of Turkmenistan A horse bred for three thousand years in one oasis, and how Turkmenistan made it a national symbol, down to the statues its presidents put up.
- Spieghiamo l'amore dei tatari per il tè e la loro ‘ora del tè infinita’ Tatar Tea Never Ends Why a Tatar guest winces at a tea bag. The samovar, the sweets and pastries, and a teatime that runs from lunch into dinner.
- Le lingue romanze si stanno orientando di più verso il genere neutro? Are Romance Languages Becoming Gender Neutral? The Romance languages mark almost every word masculine or feminine. How Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian speakers try to talk about people without choosing.
- La versione nepalese di Humans of New York racconta storie locali di vita quotidiana Stories of Nepal A photographer who came back from alcoholism started a Nepali Humans of New York. The people he met on the street tell their own stories.
- Bevete e inalate queste insolite superstizioni prima di visitare il Kirghizistan Superstitions of Kyrgyzstan Forty days of keeping a newborn from strangers, pine needles burned against hard times, and no whistling indoors. Beliefs a visitor to Kyrgyzstan will meet.
- In Uzbekistan, le case-museo letterarie sono anche monumenti di interior design Uzbekistan's Writers' House Museums The homes of famous Uzbek writers, kept as museums, and what their carved wood and painted ceilings show about how Uzbeks lived a century ago.
- Il tofu d'acqua in stile Yanbian, fatto a mano da una donna cinese-coreana, simboleggia l'unità familiare Water Tofu in a Yanbian Village A Korean-Chinese family makes soft tofu by hand whenever relatives come home. It takes more than a day, and the dish stands for the family itself.
- Una mappa dei profumi e degli odori della città di Kiev Mapping the Smells of Kyiv An artist who maps cities by their smells tweets about a delayed flight to Kyiv. A data journalist there answers, and the city gets its smell map.
- Quattro località reali che sembrano gli scenari della serie televisiva “Game of Thrones” (Il trono di spade) Four Places That Could Be in Game of Thrones A tower of skulls in Serbia and three other real places that could have stood in for Game of Thrones, with the history behind each.
- Una maestosa palma che fiorisce una sola volta nella vita sboccia a Trinidad A Palm That Flowers Once A talipot palm in Port of Spain has put out the largest flower cluster in the plant world. It blooms once, fruits, and then dies.
- Enda, il primo marchio di scarpe da corsa del Kenya, spera di diventare grande nel panorama sportivo globale Enda, Kenya's Own Running Shoe Kenya is famous for its distance runners. Enda wants to be the first African running shoe brand to take on Nike and Adidas.
- Inferno Inferno Dante's descent through the nine circles, tercet by tercet. Longfellow translated it line for line, so every row on the page pairs exactly.
- Cenere Ashes A Sardinian boy left at his father's door grows up searching for the mother who gave him away. The Nobel laureate's village novel, in clear narrative Italian.
- Le avventure di Pinocchio The Adventures of Pinocchio A wooden puppet runs away, lies, is swallowed by a shark and comes home a boy. Short chapters in lively spoken Italian, and the easiest way into the language on this shelf.
- Белые ночи White Nights A lonely young man meets a girl on a Petersburg embankment, and over four white nights she tells him about the lodger she is waiting for. Dostoevsky's early novella, told by the dreamer himself.
- Муму Mumu Gerasim, a deaf and mute porter in a Moscow household, loves a little dog, and his mistress orders him to get rid of it. Turgenev's story about serfdom, in plain narrative Russian.
- Первая любовь First Love At sixteen, Vladimir falls in love with Zinaida, the young princess who moves in next door, and slowly learns whom she loves instead. Turgenev's novella, told by the grown man years later.
- Вешние воды The Torrents of Spring Travelling home through Frankfurt, young Sanin falls in love with an Italian confectioner's daughter, becomes engaged, and throws it away for a rich married woman. An old man, he remembers it all.
- Ванька Vanka On Christmas Eve, nine-year-old Vanka, apprenticed to a Moscow shoemaker, writes to his grandfather in the village and begs to be taken home. Most of the story is his letter.
- Каштанка Kashtanka A young dog loses her master in the street, is taken in by a circus clown and trained for the ring, and on her first night on stage hears her old master call her name. Seven short chapters.
- Спать хочется Sleepy Varka, a thirteen-year-old nursemaid, rocks a crying baby through the night and works all day, and she cannot get to sleep. A short, dark story.
- Хамелеон A Chameleon A dog bites a man in the market square, and the police inspector changes his verdict every time someone says whose dog it might be. A short comic scene.
- Толстый и тонкий Fat and Thin Two school friends meet by chance at a railway station, and the thin one starts to grovel as soon as he hears how high the fat one has risen. A sketch of about five hundred words.
- Лошадиная фамилия A Horsey Name A retired general has toothache, and his steward remembers a healer whose surname had something to do with horses. The whole household guesses horse names until the doctor asks to buy some oats.
- Дама с собачкой The Lady with the Dog Gurov, a married Moscow banker on holiday in Yalta, begins an affair with a young married woman and finds, back home, that he cannot forget her. Four short chapters.
- Человек в футляре The Man in a Case Two hunters spend the night in a barn, and the schoolmaster tells of a Greek teacher who lived in dread of anything not allowed and almost married. The first story of Chekhov's little trilogy.
- Смерть Ивана Ильича The Death of Ivan Ilych A judge who has lived a correct, comfortable life falls ill, and while he dies he comes to see how false that life was. The novella opens at his funeral.
- Кавказский пленник A Prisoner of the Caucasus Zhilin, a Russian officer riding home on leave, is captured by mountain villagers with his fellow officer Kostylin, and plans an escape with the help of a village girl. Tolstoy wrote it in plain Russian for his reading books.
- Чем люди живы What Men Live By A poor shoemaker brings home a naked stranger he finds by a chapel, and the stranger works for him six years until he has learned three things. A folk tale told in plain words.
- Вишнёвый сад The Cherry Orchard Ranevskaya comes home from Paris to her family estate, which is to be sold at auction, and nobody in the house can bring themselves to save it. Chekhov's last play, in four acts.
- Предложение The Proposal Lomov, a nervous landowner, comes to propose to his neighbour's daughter, and the two quarrel over a meadow and then over their dogs before he can say it. A one-act farce.
- Встречайте ахалтекинских жеребцов, национальную гордость Туркменистана The Akhal-Teke Horses of Turkmenistan A horse bred for thousands of years in one oasis, and how Turkmenistan made it a national symbol, down to the statues its presidents put up.
- Узбекистан: традиционный дизайн интерьера возрождается благодаря домам-музеям Uzbek Writers' House Museums The homes of famous Uzbek writers are also museums of traditional interior design. A walk through their carved ceilings and painted rooms.
- Хип-хоп-группа играет исключительно на традиционных инструментах, чтобы создать новую казахстанскую идентичность Kazakh Hip-Hop on Traditional Instruments A duo from Almaty makes hip-hop using only traditional Kazakh instruments, to show that village music belongs in a modern Kazakhstan.
- В чём секрет мировой славы Димаша Кудайбергена? The Global Fame of Dimash Qudaibergen Why fans learn Kazakh and cross the world to hear one singer, and what his fame means for how Kazakhstan sees itself.
- Национальная игра Кыргызстана кок-бору обретает поклонников по всему миру Kok-Boru, Kyrgyzstan's National Game Kyrgyzstan hosted the first club world cup of kok-boru, a game played on horseback with a goat carcass. How it is played and who plays it now.
- Лариса Пак — последняя кореянка на границе между Таджикистаном и Афганистаном Larisa Pak, the Last Korean on the Afghan Border Larisa Pak is the last ethnic Korean in a village on Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan. Her life follows her parents' deportation under Stalin.
- Азербайджанские актёры спасли от сноса молитвенный дом, ставший кинотеатром A Cinema in Baku's Molokan House Artists in Baku fought the city to save a century-old Molokan prayer house that had become an independent cinema.
- Различия чайной культуры в Азербайджане и Турции Tea in Azerbaijan and Turkey An Azerbaijani writer who has lived in Turkey for twenty years compares the two tea cultures, from brewing to the glass it is served in.
- Про «бесконечное чаепитие» и любовь татар к чаю Tatar Tea and the Never-Ending Teatime Why a tea bag disappoints a Tatar, and how tea, sayings and hospitality come together at a Tatar table.
- Гендерное равенство в украинском языке: феминитивы в названиях профессий получают полное признание Feminine Job Titles in Ukrainian Ukrainian now recognises feminine names for professions. The history behind the change and the arguments about it.
- Пузырьковый чай: глоток Тайваня, ставший мировой сенсацией Bubble Tea, From Taiwan to the World Two tea houses fought in court for ten years over who invented bubble tea. How the drink began as foam and became part of being Taiwanese.
- Как корейская поп-культура формирует новые поколения в Египте Korean Pop Culture in Egypt Three young Egyptians turned a love of Korean pop culture into work: teaching the language, translating, cooking and posting online.
- Сохранение болгарской культурной памяти через кулинарные традиции: дикие травы Wild Herbs in Bulgarian Cooking Women in Bulgaria revive recipes built on wild herbs, and bring visitors back to villages that were emptying.
- Гитксанские пользователи интернета проявляют творческий подход, пытаясь вернуть к жизни свой язык Gitxsan Got Talent Speakers of Gitxsan, an endangered language in Canada, started an online talent show to get people singing and speaking it again.
- Уникальная дикая природа Новой Зеландии и как её сохранить New Zealand's Unique Wildlife Two travellers spend six weeks in New Zealand and learn how the country protects birds that evolved with no predators on land.
- Психология за решеткой. Как устроена психологическая помощь ФСИН Psychologists in Russian Prisons Every prisoner in Russia has a right to see a psychologist. How the prison service's psychologists actually work, and why prisoners learn not to trust them.
- «Не сожжение, но шредер для бумаги»: Что будет с книгами «иноагентов» после 1 сентября What Happens to Foreign Agents' Books From 1 September 2025 a 'foreign agent' may not educate anyone. What that means for their books, the shops that sell them and the publishers who print them.
- «Дереабилитация жертв массовых репрессий»: Разбираем новую инициативу прокуратуры Reversing the Rehabilitation of Stalin's Victims Russia's prosecutors plan to cancel some Soviet-era rehabilitations. What rehabilitation meant, what the new order would change and who it would touch.
- «За рощу одни уголовники борются». Как жители одного из районов Екатеринбурга пытаются отстоять свой парк The Fight for a Birch Grove in Yekaterinburg Residents of one Yekaterinburg district stand in single pickets to save their birch grove from building work. How a local park became a police matter.
- Не поймали, но осудят: как проходят заочные процессы над противниками войны Trials in Absentia Russians who left the country are now tried without being present. How a trial in absentia works, from the summons to the sentence that waits at the border.
- Неформальный запрет. Как людей увольняют за антивоенную позицию и как они борются за свои права Fired for Opposing the War People who spoke against the war lost their jobs. How employers push them out, and what labour law lets them do in return.
- Найти врагов государства. Как в Россию возвращается институт доносов The Return of Denunciations Neighbours, students and bots report people to the police again. How denunciation came back to Russia and what historians make of it.
- Риски многотысячных штрафов: чем грозит новая форма отчетности для НКО-«иноагентов» Foreign-Agent Reporting Rules for NGOs The Ministry of Justice wants 'foreign agent' NGOs to report every event and hand over the names of everyone who came. Lawyers explain what the new form asks and the fines it risks.
- ОВД-Инфо и «Мемориал» придумали генератор жалоб в ЕСПЧ. Как он работает? A Generator for Complaints to the European Court OVD-Info and Memorial built a tool that writes complaints to the European Court of Human Rights for people detained at protests. How it works, told through the people who used it.
- Особые условия. Как на политзаключенных давят в СИЗО и колониях How Political Prisoners Are Pressured How cellmates, investigators and prison staff pressure political prisoners, from endless floor-scrubbing to the punishment cell, and what helps a prisoner hold out.
- «И суды, и прокуратура закрывают глаза на очень многое». Интервью с юристом ОВД-Инфо Дмитрием Пискуновым Interview With a Defence Lawyer OVD-Info's lawyer Dmitry Piskunov explains how a criminal case against a war opponent is built and what a defence can still do.
- «Совсем не по-христиански». Рассказ многодетного отца из Бурятии, выступающего против войны A Father of Four in Buryatia A father of four in Buryatia was fined for reposts against the war. He tells in his own words how the case was built and why he keeps speaking.
- Защита после утечки After a Data Leak Hackers published the data of millions of bank customers. How such a leak happens and what to do if your own data is in it.
- Ваш сайт заблокировали. Что делать? Your Website Has Been Blocked How Russia's censor blocks websites, and eight ways a blocked site can keep reaching its readers.
- Как распознать взлом сайта How to Tell Your Website Was Hacked The signs that a website has been hacked, from strange links to a slow server, and the first steps to take.
- FAQ: Что такое суверенный интернет и грозит ли он России? What Is the Sovereign Internet A security specialist answers plain questions about Russia's 'sovereign internet': what it is, how it would work and whether the country can be cut off.
- Без имени: как обеспечить анонимность на онлайн-встречах Staying Anonymous in Online Meetings For people who could be at risk: how to join a video call without giving away who you are, from the account to the way you speak.
- Верните доступ к моим данным! Getting Your Data Back A laptop or phone suddenly stops working or goes missing. How to plan so that losing a device does not mean losing your data.
- Разложить по папкам: 10 рекомендаций по организации файлов на Google Диске Organising Files on Google Drive Ten habits that keep a Google Drive tidy, from folders and colours to shortcuts, the bin and search.
- Как собирать персональные данные и не нарушать закон Collecting Personal Data Within the Law What Russian law asks of a project that collects names and emails: consent for each purpose, the documents to keep and the fines for getting it wrong.
- Универсальный дизайн: как сделать сайт доступным для всех Universal Design for Websites Why a website should work for everyone at once rather than keep a separate version for disabled users, and how teams make that happen.
- Как провести общественное расследование: 12 онлайн-баз данных для поиска информации Twelve Databases for Public Investigations Where to look up an official's income, a company's contracts or a court case: twelve Russian databases and what each one shows.
- Архив памяти: где искать информацию о жертвах политических репрессий Where to Find Victims of Soviet Repression Online archives and projects that help families find out what happened to relatives repressed in the Soviet years, and how to volunteer for them.
- Закон о тишине: как и куда пожаловаться на шум How to Complain About Noise The neighbour who never stops drilling: which law protects your quiet, at what hours, and where to complain.
- Очень высокий человек A very tall man A man is too tall for his hoe, his door, his bed and his bicycle, so he makes everything longer and higher and goes to live in the forest. Built on слишком and очень, one short sentence a page.
- Козёл, Собака и Корова Goat, Dog, and Cow Goat runs off without paying a taxi fare and the driver leaves with Dog's change, which is why dogs chase cars, goats flee them and cows cross slowly. A how-it-came-to-be tale in the past tense.
- Ананси и Мудрость Anansi and Wisdom The god Nyame gives Anansi a pot holding all the world's wisdom, and when his small son outsmarts him Anansi throws it from a tree and the wisdom spills out for everyone. A Ghanaian folktale.
- Что ты делаешь? What are you doing? A child says what they and others are doing, singing, waving, clapping, listening, and then asks the reader. Present-tense verbs in eighteen words.
- Решение Decision A village short of water, food and safety meets under a big tree, and each person offers a job, from cleaning up to digging a well. Told by a child of the village.
- Симбегвайр Simbegwire After her mother dies, Simbegwire's new stepmother overworks and beats her, so she runs away and her aunt finds her singing in a tree. The family mends slowly, and the stepmother asks her pardon.
- Нозибеле и три волосина Nozibele and the three hairs Lost after dark, Nozibele becomes a talking dog's servant until she leaves three of her hairs to answer for her and runs home. The dog's commands and her replies repeat, page after page.
- Месть Нгиди The Honeyguide's revenge A greedy young man takes a honeyguide bird's honey and leaves it nothing, so the bird leads him next time to a sleeping leopard. A Zulu folktale, the longest after Simbegwire.
- Я люблю читать! I like to read! A child wants to read aloud, but a sister is asleep and the grown-ups are busy, so the child reads alone. One question, Кому бы мне почитать?, asked four times.
- Зама молодец! Zama is great! Zama gets up before her little brother, washes, dresses and greets the family, and says what she likes best is to play. Told in the first person, present tense.
- Голодный крокодил The hungry crocodile A hungry crocodile creeps up on its prey, strikes, and is happy until it gets hungry again. Thirty-two words.
- Тинги и коровы Tingi and the cows Soldiers take the cows, and Tingi hides under leaves and keeps quiet when one of them steps on him. He and his grandmother creep home when it is safe.
- Продавец бананов Том Tom the banana seller Nobody at the market buys bananas from Tom, because only women sell fruit, until one woman does and the tray empties. He buys soap, sugar and bread and carries them home on his head.
- Огонь Fire Fire burns, cooks, warms and gives light, and the last page calls it cosy and strong. Twenty-three words.
- Считаем животных Counting animals Animals from one elephant to nine fish go down to the water, and a lion roars and drinks beside the elephant. Numbers one to nine with the nouns they govern.
- Наказание Punishment Rahim eats the family's fruit before evening and will not say sorry until his stomach aches. Then he apologises and promises not to be greedy again.
- Поиск работы Finding a job Alisha needs work, is turned down as a chef without training, takes a hospitality course and an unpaid placement, and gets the job. It explains CV and job-interview words as it goes.
- История Малика Malik's story Malik, persecuted for his religion in Afghanistan, walks to Europe, learns the language over several years and becomes a teacher. He tells it himself.
- История Агостино Agostino's story Agostino, fifty-one and fired from his job, delivers food by bicycle for three euros an order and joins other couriers in a union fight that ends in a large fine for one company. He tells it himself.
- Роды Giving birth Selamawit in Italy and Inga in Norway each see a doctor early in pregnancy, one learning she has gestational diabetes and the other being sent to a midwife, and both have healthy babies. Antenatal care, in plain words.
- Покупка лекарства Getting medicine Tom has toothache and asks at a pharmacy for painkillers, which cost nine euros and need no prescription. A short dialogue at the counter.
- Еда Food People eat pizza, chicken and rice, and one is vegetarian and another allergic to peanuts. Food and likes in thirty-five words.
- Моя семья My family A man shows his father, mother, wife and two children and gives the children's ages. Twenty-six words.
- Я многое умею делать I can do many things A speaker lists what they can do, from cooking and sewing to speaking three languages. Умею and могу side by side.
- Покупка одежды Buying clothes Ali goes to the mall for a shirt, asks the way, finds the shirts too big and too dear, and buys trousers on sale. He will buy the shirt when his salary comes.
- Что они делают? What are they doing? Everyone from я to они is doing something, one present-tense verb for each pronoun.
- Погода The weather Seven kinds of weather, from sunny to hot, one word or two a page. The shortest story on the shelf, at nine words.
- Какая музыка тебе нравится? What sort of music do you like? Tulima from Ethiopia, Carlos from Colombia and Anita say what music they like, and the story ends by asking the reader. Нравится and предпочитаю in use.
- Разговор о семье Talking about family Two parents compare their children's ages and schools and agree they hope the children will go to university. A dialogue without names.
- Разговор о погоде Talking about the weather Two people talk about the cold, the seasons and a coming storm, and one admits being afraid of lightning. Future tense and weather words in a dialogue.
- Выделяться по уважительной причине Standing out for the right reason Edson is sent from Angola to Portugal so that fighters will not take him as a child soldier, struggles with the language, and finds his place through basketball. As an adult he coaches refugee children.
- Пение птиц по утрам The sound of birds in the morning Yulia moves from a Ukrainian village to Portugal, where her husband drinks and begins to beat her, until a hospital visit with a broken arm leads her to a women's shelter. It names domestic violence plainly.
- Приезд в Норвегию Coming to Norway A young Somali woman arrives in snowy Norway in summer clothes to join her mother, learns to read and write for the first time, and plans to become a youth worker. She tells it herself.
- Старик в качестве мужа An old man as a husband A Thai woman marries an older Norwegian man and finds he keeps her from money, work and school. She tells it herself, and it ends without a way out.
- Manus AI: что умеет ИИ-агент Manus AI: what an AI agent can do Alexander explains how an AI agent differs from a chatbot, then sets Manus to audit a website and build a 3D snake game. You hear what the free plan gives and why he keeps personal data out of it.
- Район моего детства The neighbourhood where I grew up Dasha walks her dog through the Novosibirsk district where she grew up: her school, the art school, the market and the ice slide. She tells you why she always wanted to leave, and how she lost half a front tooth.
- Пушкин на Мойке Pushkin on the Moika Natasha walks you along the Moika from Pushkin's last flat to the Bronze Horseman. You hear about his eleven-room rent, his 29 duels, the restaurant where he first met d'Anthès and the long sleigh ride after the fatal shot.
- Убьёт ли ИИ изучение языков? Will AI kill language learning? Lyosha starts from a dream about translating earbuds in Tokyo and asks why you would still learn a language. His answer runs through the word тоска, a Siberian babushka and the plain joy of the process.
- Прогулка по ИКЕА A walk through IKEA You follow a Russian speaker room by room through an IKEA in Mexico as she names the sofa, the fridge and the soft toys, and says what she is doing at each step. The sentences are short and slow and come back again and again.
- Зимняя Карелия: Беломорканал и Рускеала Winter Karelia: the White Sea Canal and Ruskeala Dasha spends a night in a 1955 log house, tells you how prisoners dug the White Sea Canal by hand, and turns back at dusk before the Sandarmokh execution site. The trip ends in the marble canyon at Ruskeala.
- Дневник кота-сапиенса The diary of a cat sapiens Maria recommends a children's book by Tamara Kryukova about a cat who surfs the internet and keeps a diary. She walks you through its jokes and word play, from банк and банка to writing в стол.
- Сверхъестественный Supernatural Tatiana takes the word apart into сверх and естественный and walks you through superheroes, mind readers and religion. You also learn the phrase for an extraordinary effort.
- Зимняя Карелия: Петрозаводск и Кивач Winter Karelia: Petrozavodsk and Kivach Dasha and a friend drive north to Petrozavodsk for Christmas. You walk the Onega embankment with them, hear what Karelians cook and stand by the Kivach waterfall in the snow.
- Как улучшить видео в Topaz Upscaling video with Topaz Vova Lomov upscales a clip made by a neural network and walks you through the export settings: grain, motion deblur, frame rate and codecs.
- Счастье в одиночестве? Is happiness being alone? Recorded for Valentine's Day: Lyosha traces how the family turned from a way to survive into a choice, and why his generation lives apart or puts off children. He argues that the choice itself is what counts.
- Даниэль из Германии учит русский Daniel from Germany learns Russian Dasha talks with her student Daniel, an accountant in Siegen, about his lessons since 2021 and the podcasts, graded readers and comics he uses between them. You hear her correct his cases gently as they go.
- Как мы спасли собаку How we saved a dog Dasha tells how she found a lost hunting dog in the next courtyard and how her neighbours traced its owners through the microchip. By the next evening the dog has a new home.
- Интервью с Оливером An interview with Oliver Over a video call Oliver tells Maria why he chose Russian, what five months in St Petersburg taught him and why he likes the word чужбина. He ends with his advice on news, apps and Soviet films.
- DuckDuckGo: поиск и браузер без слежки DuckDuckGo, search and a browser that don't track you Alexander goes through DuckDuckGo's privacy settings, its anonymous AI chat and the browser's Fire button. He leaves the verdict to you.
- Бот «Докопался» Dokopalsya, a bot that checks claims Teplitsa's own Telegram bot pulls claims out of a text and sums up sources on each. You watch it test the sun, climate change, dinosaurs and astrology.
- Passkey: вход без пароля Passkey: signing in without a password Vova sets up a passkey on a Google account and explains the key pair behind it. He suggests keeping an old phone without a SIM card locked away as your key.
- Советы Юли по произношению Yulia's pronunciation tips Yulia, a teacher who specialises in phonetics, takes you through stress, question intonation, и against ы, soft consonants and the Russian р. Dasha frames the talk with a sponsored segment for italki.
- Прогулка по Петроградке с Машей A Petrogradsky walk with Masha Dasha and her friend Masha, a jewellery designer, get lost on the way to a noodle bar, taste each other's udon and walk up Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt. Masha tells you why she chose Petersburg over Moscow and about a room she nearly rented in a communal flat.
- Моя неделя My week Maria goes through her week day by day: the train to Coventry, classes, yoga on Thursday and the market on Saturday. You hear the days of the week with в over and over.
- Дофаминовая яма The dopamine pit Why short videos make books feel hard. Lyosha explains the dopamine pit, remembers reading War and Peace at fifteen with no internet at home, and gives you the three things he does to put the phone down.
- Что такое дача What a dacha is Maria shows you round her relatives' dacha: the greenhouses of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, the beds of beetroot and dill, the banya and the outdoor shower.
- Разговор с Таней в Павловском парке A talk with Tanya in Pavlovsk Park Dasha catches up with her friend Tanya, a pathologist, on a warm September day in Pavlovsk Park. Tanya tells you about paddleboarding on Lake Ladoga, a trip to Kislovodsk, a circus run with children from orphanages and the fantasy novel she wants to publish.
- Разбираю новогоднюю ёлку Taking down the New Year tree Dasha takes the ornaments off her tree one by one while she tells you how she saw in 2025: a quiet New Year's Eve, a bath house and cross-country skiing. The toys lead her to Baba Yaga, Soviet children's costumes and the wish made on the Kremlin chimes.
- Прогулка по Копенгагену A walk around Copenhagen Dasha walks through a Copenhagen cemetery, Vesterbro and the canals and tells you about a trip that took her to the Vienna Opera. She follows Tove Ditlevsen's childhood streets, climbs a church tower despite her fear of heights and tries smørrebrød.
- Жизнь за полярным кругом Life above the Arctic Circle Liza grew up in Kirovsk and tells Dasha about polar nights, a bear loose in the town park and a great-grandfather sent north as an enemy of the people. She is frank about mine work, early pensions and why locals are wary of outsiders.
- Кем был Робин Гуд Who Robin Hood was Kipnis argues that the ballads make Robin Hood a yeoman and not a knight. In two minutes you hear how the yeomen live on in the Tudor guard and on whisky labels.
- Ландшафтный архитектор A landscape architect Tatiana talks with Margarita Ilyicheva about learning Estonian, Italian and French, what a landscape architect designs and why Paris has so few trees.
- Диаграммы в diagrams.net Drawing diagrams in diagrams.net Vova builds a diagram on Google Drive step by step: shapes, arrows that stay connected, the grid and export. By the end it turns into a fire evacuation plan.
- Салат оливье Olivier salad The day before New Year Maria cooks the salad every Russian table has, one bowl with sausage and one without. You hear each step as she boils, chops and mixes.
- Смотреть или смотреть на To watch or to look at A viewer asks when Russian says смотреть and when смотреть на. Tatiana answers with films, paintings and clouds, and shows you the exception heard in shops.
- Почему я перестал слушать подкасты Why I stopped listening to podcasts Learner podcasts taught Lyosha English, until making his own show left him hearing only the breathing and the edits. A football podcast for native speakers cured it, and he tells you why you are ready for native podcasts too.
- Кронштадт: Петровский док Kronstadt: the Petrovsky Dock Dasha and Nikita try to reach Kronstadt's old Peter the Great dock and meet local boys who know the way through the fence. She tells you about the city in the blockade and the small fish that fed it.
- Ночной таксист в Северодвинске Driving a night taxi in Severodvinsk Liza drove a taxi on weekend nights to save for a mortgage deposit. She tells you about her shifts, the passenger with a pistol and why you should book a taxi through an app.
- Звездорыл The star-nosed mole Natalia Nosova of the Darwin Museum picks one burrowing animal for a viewer: a mole with 22 feelers on its nose. You learn how it checks 13 objects a second and smells underwater.
- С мамой в Мариинском театре At the Mariinsky with Mum Dasha takes her mother to Madama Butterfly at the Mariinsky and to a ballet at the Hermitage Theatre. On the way she tells you what to wear to a Russian theatre and how to skip the interval queue.
- Ответы на вопросы: ковид и кино Viewer questions: covid and films Dasha answers viewers' questions. She tells you how she and her husband got covid in 2020, recommends Russian directors from Tarkovsky to Balagov and describes the cost of living in Petersburg.
- Прогулка в парке A walk in the park A slow walk around a park in Mexico: trees, benches, exercise machines, a dry fountain and a gazebo. The speaker tells you what she sees and what people do there, and gets a little lost looking for the place she wants to show you.
- Резюме и анкета The CV and the application form A lecture on applying for work in Russia. You hear six kinds of CV, the layout rules and the case for and against mentioning a disability.
- Главный блок сайта в Кандинском The main block of a Kandinsky site Part four of a course on the free Kandinsky site builder. Vova explains colour overlays and block height, then writes a call to action and says why every site needs one goal.
- Ярмарка народных промыслов A folk crafts fair Dasha walks a St Petersburg crafts fair and interviews the makers: tapestry sellers, a Urals artist who builds pictures from stone, a basket-weaving student and a teacher of lacquer miniature painting. You hear each one describe the work and name a price.
- Алма-Ата, озёра и каньоны Almaty, its lakes and canyons Dasha flies to Almaty to open a bank account and stays to see the city, Lake Kaindy on horseback, Lake Kolsai and the Charyn Canyon. She narrates the trip in calm, measured sentences.
- Разговор с Леной в горах A mountain talk with Lena On a snowy trail Dasha asks her school friend Lena big questions: what matters most, what she would do with a million dollars, her hardest year after moving to Germany, and who she would never date.
- Как познакомиться с русской девушкой How to meet a Russian woman Dasha and Artyom from Russian Progress talk about meeting someone in Russia: apps, first dates, who pays and how to address a partner's parents. Two young people talking fast and informally.
- Четыре дня в Москве Four days in Moscow Dasha spends four days in Moscow for a friend's birthday. You see VDNKh, a seafood lunch, the Tretyakov Gallery and a rainy Red Square, with short comments as she goes.
- Поездка в Эдинбург A trip to Edinburgh Maria tells you about a week in Edinburgh: a conference talk on Matilde Serao, the Royal Mile, the galleries and the climb up Arthur's Seat.
- Игорь Николаевич, учитель математики Igor Nikolaevich, a maths teacher Igor Nikolaevich, a retired maths teacher, tells Dasha about a childhood in Soviet Azerbaijan, falling into his grandfather's wine barrel, black-market jeans in Leningrad and his four Soros prizes.
- Кировск и Хибины Kirovsk and the Khibiny Mountains Dasha rides a long train north to visit her friend Masha, skis again after nine years and sees the northern lights for the first time. She also tells you how miners and forcibly resettled families built the town.
- Балтийский поход 1854 года The Baltic campaign of 1854 A live lecture on the Crimean War as it reached the Baltic: Bomarsund, Sveaborg and why Admiral Napier would not attack Kronstadt. Kipnis ends with news of his other lectures and an invitation to ask questions.
- Мама о Новосибирске Mum on Novosibirsk Dasha walks in a park with her mum Svetlana, who moved to Novosibirsk 44 years ago. Together they list what is good and bad about the city: Akademgorodok, dirty roads, high prices, sunny winters and the metro bridge.
- Макс об отъезде из России Max on leaving Russia Max from Russian with Max joins Dasha from Belgrade. He tells you how he crossed the border back into Russia, how viewers reacted after February 2022 and why a break from learning can help.
- Кирилл и Мефодий на Днепре Cyril and Methodius on the Dnieper Kipnis tells how Byzantium answered Slavic raids by sending the brothers from Thessaloniki to the Dnieper as missionaries. He reminds you their alphabet was first made for the Bulgarians.
- Наташа о себе и своём городе Natasha on herself and her city Natasha, a museologist born in St Petersburg, talks about a nineties childhood, the places she would show a first-time visitor and why you should try fried smelt in May. A quick round of favourites follows, then plans for New Year.
- Студенты читают Пушкина Students read Pushkin Students at Warwick University read Pushkin's short poem to his school friend Pushchin in exile, line by line in turn.
- День на озере A day at the lake Dasha packs a bag at her dacha item by item, buys melons and ice cream in the village and swims with Nikita in a shallow warm lake. Back at the dacha she shows you the apple trees and the beehives.
- Как узнать о судьбе деда Tracing a grandfather who fought in the war A viewer asks how to learn what happened to her grandfather at Mukachevo. Kipnis tells her step by step which military office and archive to write to.
- Anytype вместо Notion Anytype as an alternative to Notion Alexander installs Anytype, a local encrypted notes app, and builds a page, a linked graph and a shared space. You also hear what the free plan allows.
- Незваный гость The uninvited guest Maria passes a colleague's house without warning and it reminds her of the saying незваный гость хуже татарина. She explains where it comes from and asks how guests are received where you live.
- Масленица в парке Maslenitsa in the park Dasha takes you to a Maslenitsa fair in Petersburg and reads out what each day of pancake week meant: matchmaking on Tuesday, pancakes for your son-in-law on Wednesday, farewell to winter on Sunday.
- Слушай и выбирай: Новый год Listen and choose: the holidays Short descriptions of a tree, a penguin, a snowman and an elf. You pick the matching picture before the answer comes.
- Почему нас тянет к плохим новостям Why bad news pulls us in Two cavemen, a screech of brakes and three hormones explain why a fire beats a new park in your news feed. Lyosha ends on doomscrolling and how to ration the news.
- Coze: плагины и настройки бота Coze: plugins and bot settings Vova adds Google search and DALL-E to a free GPT-4 bot in Telegram, then tours memory, databases and workflows. He ends with a forecast for AI chatbots and a Terminator joke.
- Переход на Google Analytics 4 Moving to Google Analytics 4 The first lesson of a nine-part course. Vova outlines what the course covers and moves a site from Universal Analytics to GA4 through Google Tag Manager.
- Античный Петербург Ancient Rome in Petersburg Standing on Palace Square Kipnis reads the General Staff arch and the column as a Roman forum built to honour the victory over Napoleon.
- Робот Toyota и космическая нация Toyota's robot and a nation in space Two news items: Toyota's T-HR3 humanoid that copies an operator's movements, and the launch of Asgardia's first satellite. The presenter follows each with sardonic comments.
- Как живут пчёлы How bees live Dasha explains a bee colony from worker to queen to drone, how a swarm is caught and how honey is made. Then beekeeper Igor Nikolaevich tells you how one hive became an apiary.
- Школьные воспоминания с Ирой School memories with Ira Ira remembers a school week when final-year pupils came in pyjamas and mafia suits, and the quiz game that led her to her husband. Then both women trade summer camp stories: a stolen shelf, a crush on a counsellor and the candle passed round on the last night.
- Мама волейболистки A volleyball player's mother Near Florence Dasha interviews Olga Antropova, whose daughter Ekaterina plays volleyball for Italy. Olga explains the move from Russia, the diet on match days and how they trained on a roof during lockdown.
- Тамара из Амстердама Tamara from Amsterdam Tamara grew up in Leningrad and has lived in Amsterdam for eight years. She tells Dasha why the Dutch are blunter than Russians, why she loves Dutch herring, and ends by singing a folk song.
- Скупой платит дважды The miser pays twice A friend saves on parking and gets a fine, and Maria takes his saying apart word by word. You learn why плачу and плачу differ only in stress, and what однажды really means.
- Выходной с Таней в Эрмитаже A day off at the Hermitage with Tanya Dasha heats up borscht, loses a few frames from an old Zenit camera and rides the metro across town. You then walk a Caspar David Friedrich exhibition with her friend Tanya and end the day over pita and hummus.
- Кабинет бровиста Кати Katya's brow studio Katya shows you round the 19-square-metre room where she works alone: the couch, the sterilising corner and the photo wall. She explains Russia's hygiene rules and why she will keep seeing clients rather than only teach.
- Осенняя прогулка с мамой An autumn walk with Mum Dasha's mother remembers visiting Lenin's mausoleum at six, and Dasha lists what you should do on a first visit to St Petersburg. You end in the Summer Garden after hot chocolate by the Fontanka.
- Новогодние открытки New Year cards Maria shows you the cards she bought in Moscow and reads what each one says, from С наступающим to a Soviet greeting to dear comrades. Her cat plays under the tree.
- Инженер связи A telecoms engineer A careers profile for students with disabilities: what a telecoms engineer does, what you need to know and where in Russia you can study. A hard-of-hearing engineer is shown at work.
- Как удалить метаданные из фото, аудио и видео Removing metadata from photos, audio and video Alexander strips metadata with GIMP, ExifCleaner, Tenacity, AudioRanger and VLC. He closes with a warning about trusting any tool with your files.
- Умные костюмы и блокчейн в Facebook Smart skating suits and blockchain at Facebook Samsung's sensor suits for Dutch short-track skaters, then Zuckerberg's and Durov's plans for cryptocurrency. The presenter adds jokes about doping and Mavrodi.
- Фрукты и овощи Fruit and vegetables Maria unpacks two boxes of groceries delivered during lockdown and names each fruit and vegetable as it comes out.
- День святого Валентина Valentine's Day Maria tells you how Russians mark 14 February, who gets a card and what people give, and why she thinks love should be said more than once a year.
- Формы предпринимательства Ways to run a business in Russia A legal lecture comparing a sole trader with a company on liability, registration, accounts and tax. It ends with the start-up grant open to disabled founders.
- Зачем все ходят в спортзал Why everyone goes to the gym Lyosha loves lifting and sees unhappy faces around him at the evening gym. He talks about training out of fear of not looking like everyone else and what endorphins ask of you, then explains five words from the episode.
- Гайд-парк на карантине Hyde Park in lockdown A walk through London in spring 2020: closed gyms, museums and Underground entrances, then a nearly empty Hyde Park where you may walk but not sit.
- Экотропа на Сестрорецком болоте The Sestroretsk bog trail Dasha and Nikita miss their train, buy tickets in the Russian Railways app and walk a boardwalk trail across the Sestroretsk bog. Over tea and her mother's cutlets she tells you which parks and palaces near Petersburg to visit.
- День Светы Sveta's day Sveta tells Maria what she does on a day off and on a working day: breakfast, walks with her nephew, beadwork pictures and chamomile tea at night.
- Ностальгия Nostalgia From a seventeenth-century Swiss doctor who called it a disease to Lyosha's own student years. He explains why memory keeps only the bright moments, and how to live so that today is worth missing later.
- Стивен из Калифорнии Steven from California Steven, a graduate student from California, has spent five weeks in St Petersburg. He tells Dasha what surprised him: the banya, the blunt shop staff, the lack of personal space and how safe he felt.
- Исаакиевская и Сенатская площади St Isaac's and Senate Squares Kipnis names what two neighbouring squares have seen: Falconet's Peter, the Decembrists, Vavilov's institute and Montferrand's cathedral. Expect a rush of names in under three minutes.
- За грибами в лес Mushroom hunting in the forest Dasha and Nikita walk a northern forest looking for ceps and birch boletes, then make mushroom soup at home. You hear real chatter between two people, with Dasha's memories of picnics with her grandmother.
- Осенняя прогулка по Московскому району An autumn walk in the Moskovsky district Dasha walks you through Aviators Park and Victory Park in St Petersburg while she tells you about her new flat, a summer without YouTube and a trip to Rome. She stops at the theatre posters and at the site where victims of the siege were cremated.
- Инжир и оса The fig and the wasp Do you eat dead wasps with every fig? Natalia Nosova explains how tiny wasps pollinate figs from the inside and why nothing of them is left in the fruit.
- Собираю чемодан в Сибирь Packing for Siberia Dasha packs for two weeks with her parents in Novosibirsk: chocolates and magnets for family, warm clothes, a dress for the party they throw her. She explains why одежда is always singular.
- На катке у Финского залива At the ice rink on the Gulf of Finland Dasha skates a huge new rink by the Gulf of Finland with her husband Nikita and explains кататься, увлекаться and интересоваться as she goes. Then they walk from Nevsky Prospekt past the Moika to Palace Square.
- Всем нужна русская бабушка Everyone needs a Russian babushka The headscarf, the weather read from an aching knee and the table that fills the moment you say you are hungry. Lyosha then talks about his own two grandmothers, both gone now, and the safety they gave him.
- Тайм-трекер Clockify The Clockify time tracker Vova sets up Clockify from scratch and shows how projects, clients and tasks split your hours. He maps the same structure onto a charity preparing for New Year.
- Как говорить увереннее How to speak with more confidence Dasha starts with her first summer in the United States, when five years of English left her unable to make small talk. Her five steps cover low-stress practice, stock phrases and your active vocabulary.
- Бабушка Валентина о детстве и любви Grandma Valentina on childhood and love Valentina, born in 1938, tells her granddaughter about a hungry village childhood, a schoolboy she married and a secret uranium settlement where she typed classified reports. You hear an older speaker's rural turns of phrase with her own jokes.
- Истории от ChatGPT Stories by ChatGPT Dasha reads three stories she asked ChatGPT to write in Russian, a Fabergé egg theft among them. She stops to correct each phrase a native speaker would say differently and tells you how to use it for practice.
- Поход на Бадукские озёра A hike to the Baduk lakes Dasha hikes alone to three mountain lakes near Dombay and tells you what to wear and how to get there. On the way she explains why the Caucasus matters to her after nine months in hospital with tuberculosis.
- Программа саморазвития A self-development plan A narrated slide lecture: five questions for building a plan to develop yourself, the risks of self-knowledge and the barriers that hold people back.
- Как выйти из Google-аккаунта на Андроиде Signing out of a Google account on Android Vova once got stuck at a border crossing. He shows you how to keep a second decoy account on your phone and remove your main one when you need to.
- Imagen 4 и Nano Banana Imagen 4 and Nano Banana from Google Alexander generates pictures in Google AI Studio, then edits photos with Nano Banana: a suit, a borrowed shirt, a dog beside a walker and a scene built from a sketch.
- Цели и планирование времени Setting goals and planning time A narrated slide lecture for first-year students on self-organisation: its barriers, the skills it takes and four conditions for reaching a goal.
- Звонок работодателю Calling an employer A lecturer walks you through a job-seeker's phone call: what to prepare, the order of the conversation and the mistakes that cost you the interview.
- Весна Spring On the last day of May Maria looks back on spring 2020 in London through her photos of blossom, tulips and roses. You also hear why she does not like carnations.
- Ясмин из Австралии о русском Yasmin from Australia on learning Russian Yasmin, a former music teacher from Queensland, tells Dasha how she learnt Russian in two and a half years and which podcasts and books helped. She is about to leave for Central Asia to teach English.
- Зачем россиянки ходят в салоны красоты Why Russian women go to beauty salons Katya and Dasha talk about how much of a salary goes on looking good, why men distrust heavy make-up and who women really dress for. You also hear about halal brow shaping and why men should never trim their eyebrows.
- Выходные в Карелии с папой A weekend in Karelia with Dad Dasha walks to a radon lake near Sortavala with her husband and her father, who has flown in from Novosibirsk. On the way she tells you about grilled trout, a storm that kept them off Valaam and a lunch of camping meals.
- Focal AI: видео силами агента Focal AI, an agent that makes video Alexander asks Focal AI for a fifteen-second anime samurai fight and follows it as it writes the script, generates the shots and edits them. Then he remakes a TikTok kitten video with puppies.
- Режиссёр праздников Directing shows and festivals A short careers profile: what a director of festivals and staged shows plans and runs and why limited mobility, sight or hearing need not stop you.
- Сокровища родительской квартиры Treasures in my parents' flat In her parents' flat in Novosibirsk Dasha shows you the things that hold memories: the Soviet wall unit full of collected works, her brother's stamps, her grandfather's honour certificates and her school albums.
- Гопники Gopniks Tracksuits, sunflower seeds and «есть позвонить?»: Lyosha describes the gopnik, where the word comes from and how the 1990s made them. He remembers the boys from his own yard and why you rarely meet one today.
- Непринуждённый Relaxed and easy Tatiana explains the word through two scenes at a party: a dress code that does not exist and a friend chatting with the president. You hear it paired with обстановка, тон and поза.
- Плёс на Волге Plyos on the Volga A short visit to Plyos, a small town on the Volga where Isaac Levitan painted. Dasha shows you the carved window frames and the flat she rented, and tells you the town's history.
- Стереотип о славянской красоте The Slavic beauty stereotype Lyosha asks where the idea that Slavic women are the most beautiful comes from: mixed peoples, a harsh climate, patriarchal pressure and the foreigner who sees only the shop window. He speaks out against men who want a compliant Slavic wife.
- Прогулка с Ирой в Монрепо A walk with Ira in Mon Repos Dasha walks the Mon Repos park near Vyborg with Ira from O russkom po-russki. Ira tells you about her summer plans for Sakhalin and the Kurils, the places in Russia she still wants to see and her first night at the Mariinsky.
- Заброшенные усадьбы под Петербургом Abandoned estates near Petersburg Dasha climbs through ruined manor houses, a burnt church and the Koporye fortress outside Petersburg. You hear their history read out, and she reads you adverts from a pre-revolutionary newspaper pasted under the wallpaper.
- Раиса Николаевна из деревни Raisa Nikolaevna from the village Raisa Nikolaevna keeps hens and rabbits in a Leningrad-region village. She tells you about a hungry postwar childhood, years at sea on fishing trawlers, the books she loves and the garden she talks to.
- Как я учила английский How I learnt English Dasha tells you how she learnt English: school lessons with no speaking, debates at a language school, a summer on Cape Cod where she could not answer a simple question, and a TOEFL taken after two weeks of cramming. She turns each step into advice for your Russian.
- Морской собор в Кронштадте The Naval Cathedral in Kronstadt Dasha visits Kronstadt's Naval Cathedral and reads you its history: built for sailors lost at sea, turned into a cinema in Soviet times and restored in 2013.
- Новый ежедневник A new diary On 1 January Maria opens a green diary for 2019 and lines up the old ones by year and colour.
- Имплант памяти и нейросеть-диагност A memory implant and an AI that diagnoses pneumonia A brain implant that improved volunteers' memory, Stanford's network that reads chest X-rays and a Chinese program that passed a medical exam. The presenter jokes about politicians and jobs lost to algorithms.
- Георгиевская лента The St George ribbon Kipnis traces the Order of St George from Catherine the Great to the Order of Glory and asks who has the right to wear its ribbon. A solemn Victory Day address from 2014 in elevated old-fashioned Russian.
- NotebookLM: работа с большими текстами NotebookLM for large texts Alexander loads The Count of Monte Cristo, an English PDF, a web article and an hour-long YouTube stream into NotebookLM. You hear what summaries, questions and study guides it makes from each.
- Извини, прости, соболезную Sorry, forgive me, my condolences Dasha shows you which word fits each situation: bumping into someone, hurting a friend, hearing bad news or a death. She ends by remembering Wojtek, her student from Poland who died in a car crash.
- Два дня в Кургальском заповеднике Two days in the Kurgalsky reserve Dasha and her husband Nikita swim in White Lake, tour their bungalow down to the cutlery and row out at sunset. She tells you what they ate at every meal and what the trip cost.
- Выборы президента 2024 года The 2024 presidential election Dasha explains how Russia's March 2024 presidential election ran, reads out the four candidates' slogans and programmes, and describes casting her own ballot. She ends with questions for you about voting.
- Мой район Кудрово My neighbourhood, Kudrovo Dasha walks down the main avenue of Kudrovo, a new tower-block suburb of Petersburg, and reads you every shop sign on the way. She weighs up cheap flats against traffic jams, few schools and courtyards full of cars.
- В гостях у сибирской бабушки Visiting a Siberian grandmother Dasha shows you her grandmother's flat in a small Siberian town and tells her story: a grandfather who drove for a living, a maternity nurse, a dacha garden and a cabinet full of crystal.
- Не истина в последней инстанции Not the final word Kipnis asks you to hear his lectures as an invitation to think about Russian history and not as its last word.
- Ошибки англоговорящих в русском Mistakes English speakers make in Russian Dasha and Janey, an American who studied in Moscow, go through the Russian errors English speakers make most: age with мне, работать инженером, ли instead of если, спросить and попросить, and verbs of aspect. Janey tells you the ones she still makes.
- Как понимать быструю речь How to follow fast speech Dasha gives seven tips: listen for the gist first, learn how words run together and stay with one speaker for a few days. A fifteen-minute practice routine closes the video.
- С Кевином по Выборгу Around Vyborg with Kevin Dasha walks her student Kevin from Germany past Vyborg's ruined houses to Mon Repos park. Kevin tells you how forty lessons got him speaking, and the two argue about beer over local cider.
- Обсуждаем «Игру в кальмара» Talking about Squid Game Dasha and Yulia from Russian connection talk through Squid Game: the doll, the old man, the marbles episode and the ending they disagree about. You hear how Russians share their opinion of a series.
- День русского языка Russian Language Day Maria tells you why Russian Language Day falls on Pushkin's birthday and about the Moscow airport renamed after him. She ends by reading Я вас любил.
- Поверхностный Superficial Tatiana starts with a scratch on her car and moves on to small talk and a thin grasp of philosophy. You learn the literal sense of the word and the figurative one.
- Суббота: бассейн и строймагазин Saturday: the pool and the hardware store Dasha spends her Saturday with her husband Nikita: Korean noodles for lunch, a first swim on a new pool pass, a supermarket and a hardware store for cement. The day ends with a lazy Siberian supper of potatoes and smoked fish.
- Средняя Азия перед монголами Central Asia before the Mongols A one-minute clip: Kipnis lists the lands of the Khwarazmian Empire with heavy irony and names the ancient civilisations the Mongols overran.
- История Ильи Ilya's story Ilya, nearly forty, tells you how a missed meeting that turned out not to matter made him stop overthinking. A simple first-person story, followed by five expressions explained, among them делать из мухи слона.
- Мой выходной и Павловск My day off and Pavlovsk Dasha takes you through a winter Sunday: yoga, washing her hair, French toast with cocoa, a sleigh ride in Pavlovsk park and pho at the market. Each step is described as she does it.
- Игромания Gambling addiction Lyosha once worked at a betting shop and tells you what he saw there. He explains how dopamine, the near miss and the illusion of control keep people playing, and what anyone can do about it.
- Сколько времени учить русский How long it takes to learn Russian Why we want a language fast, and why no one, Lyosha included, ever finishes one. A story runs through it: Antonio from Madrid buys a quick course to talk to Elena from Belarus, and it goes wrong before it goes right.
- «Русская женщина» Манижи Manizha's song Russian Woman Dasha reads the lyrics of Russia's 2021 Eurovision song line by line and explains the idioms. Then she talks about the questions Russian women hear about marriage and children, and the racist comments aimed at the Tajik-born singer.
- Авось Avos, trusting to luck Lyosha takes one untranslatable word apart: where авось came from, how you use it before an exam or without an umbrella, and why farming and a hard history made it a national habit. He ends with when it is safe to rely on it.
- Как мы уезжали из Ирпеня Leaving Irpin under shelling Nika Minchenko tells Tatiana about the first days of the war: hiding in the stairwell, the mortar that hit her building and the three-day drive west.
- Суздаль и Спасо-Евфимиев монастырь Suzdal and its monastery Dasha tours Suzdal's walled monastery: the bells, the frescoes, the treasury and a hall of old books. She reads you a poem where political prisoners were once held, then tries cucumber ice cream by the river.
- В гостях у Лены в ЦЕРНе Visiting Lena at CERN Dasha explains how the Large Hadron Collider works while her friend Lena, a physicist at CERN, shows you her office and a small accelerator. Lena also answers whether the collider could make a black hole.
- Петербург «Преступления и наказания» The St Petersburg of Crime and Punishment The guide Natasha takes you from Sennaya Square to the moneylender's house, counting Raskolnikov's 730 steps. Along the way she tells you how Dostoevsky met his second wife Anna and what the novel's crooked lanes say about its hero.
- Куйбышев, бывший Каинск Kuybyshev, once Kainsk Dasha visits her grandmother's town in Siberia and tells you its history, from Yermak's Cossacks and the merchant houses to the revolution and the war that took her great-grandfather.
- Интервью с Дженни An interview with Jenny Jenny has just graduated from Warwick University. She tells Maria how Dostoevsky drew her to Russian, why verbs of motion and aspect are hard, and how she learns words from what she reads.
- Новосибирск зимой Novosibirsk in winter Dasha goes home to Novosibirsk in a snowstorm. She shows you the opera house, the longest metro bridge in the world and a market where, in the nineties, children tried on trousers on a sheet of cardboard in thirty below.
- Как запоминать новые слова How to remember new words Dasha gives you thirteen ways to learn Russian vocabulary, from retelling a story in the third person to reading long words by syllable. She ends with a list of Russian-language YouTube channels worth watching.
- Оливье с рыбой и новогодние истории Olivier salad with fish and New Year stories Dasha makes Olivier salad with salted trout while she answers your questions about a Russian New Year: Ded Moroz, school parties and gifts. She tells you about two New Years she will never forget, one in a Thai mountain village and one at 2,600 metres.
- Восемь причин бросить русский Eight reasons to stop learning Russian A tongue-in-cheek warning: learn Russian well and the classics, the streaming bills and Soviet comedies will take over your life. Lyosha then explains the films and the dark joke behind his references.
- Мой друг Данте My friend Dante Maria describes her colleague Dante, an Argentine who teaches Spanish: his height, eyes and beard, his ukulele and his cakes.
- Интервью с Каримом An interview with Karim Karim grew up in Cyprus, studied law and learnt Russian from scratch in three years. He tells Maria how he beat his fear of mistakes, why he talks to himself and about driving two cars across the Balkans to Kyiv.
- Удельный рынок The Udelny flea market Dasha tours St Petersburg's main flea market with Yuri Molodkovets, the Hermitage's photographer. You learn when to come, how to bargain and what she took home for a few hundred roubles.
- Мой чемодан My suitcase Maria packs for the seaside and names each thing as it goes in.
- Мои кошки My cats Dasha tells you how each of her three cats came to live with her: Sheila from Novosibirsk, Syoma from a shelter and Musya from under a parked car. She also talks about why Russians love cats and about a cat thrown off a train.
- 23 февраля 23 February Maria explains the Defender of the Fatherland Day, how schoolchildren marked it and why everyone likes the day off.
- Клад на даче Treasure at the dacha A hot summer day at the dacha: Dasha's husband digs for old coins with a metal detector, the family grills shashlik for his father's birthday, and the finds keep coming up out of the pond bank.
- LocalSend: файлы по Wi-Fi LocalSend: sending files over Wi-Fi Alexander sends a 4.5 GB file from Windows to a Mac and a small one to an iPhone that has no app, using a QR code. Along the way he explains why nothing leaves your local network.
- Разговор о Беларуси A conversation about Belarus Yauheni from Vitebsk tells Maria what languages Belarus speaks, which towns to see, how visa-free entry through Minsk works and why the country is Беларусь and not Белоруссия. He ends with a few words in Belarusian.
- Язык примёрз My tongue froze to a pole Tatiana tells you slowly how she licked a metal pole at nursery school in Severodvinsk and what the teacher did next. She stops to explain лизнуть, примёрзнуть and чайник as they come up.
- Открываем дачный сезон Opening the dacha for the season Dasha opens up the family dacha after winter: the stove, the kitchen, the beehives and the pond. Then she walks you through the words for cleaning a house, one chore at a time.
- Воевала ли Петропавловская крепость Did the Peter and Paul Fortress ever fight Kipnis corrects a common myth: the Swedes tried to reach the fortress twice in its first two years. You hear a clear account of how the crownwork and Russian troops turned them back.
- Tuta: зашифрованная почта Tuta, encrypted email Alexander compares Tuta with Proton Mail, registers a free mailbox and sends a password-protected letter to Gmail. You hear what the recipient gets and what the free plan withholds.
- Осенние листья Autumn leaves Maria shows you the leaves she picked up on the way to the university and names each colour, from green and yellow to white.
- Дача осенью The dacha in autumn Dasha shows you the family dacha in mid-September: the Russian stove, the apple harvest, the greenhouse, the beehives and the bathhouse she lights at the end of the day.
- Животные и страны Animals and countries Maria holds up her souvenir animals one by one and says where each comes from: a giraffe from Germany, a frog from Spain, an owl from Russia.
- Петербург: за и против Petersburg: pros and cons Yulia from Russian Connection, a teacher now living in Barcelona, tells Dasha what she loves and hates about Petersburg. They talk about grey winters, why Russians hide their happiness and what you should pack for a visit.
- Анастасия о злых комментариях Anastasia on hateful comments Anastasia from Russian with Anastasia has run her channel for six years. She tells you what trolls have written to her, which comments she deletes, and why a teacher's note keeps her going.
- Парадокс выбора The paradox of choice Scrolling past posters, too many headphones and Barry Schwartz's jam experiment. Lyosha tells you why more options leave you less happy and how he narrows every choice to three.
- Русский мат Russian swearing Do Russians really swear more than anyone? Lyosha looks at the stereotype, an ice-water experiment showing that swearing dulls pain, and why he tries not to swear himself.
- В общественной бане At the public banya Dasha shows you what to pack for a Sunday at a public banya in St Petersburg and walks you through the steam room and cold pool. Then she drives to the Gulf of Finland with her husband.
- Смол-ток Small talk Why Russians avoid chat about the weather and yet tell a stranger on a train their whole life story. Lyosha points to history, the cold and a dislike of false cheer, and tells you where he stands.
- Кукла Сабрина Sabrina the doll Maria describes a handmade doll from a friend in Moscow: her face and hair, her jeans and checked shirt and her red beret.
- Интервью с Луи An interview with Lewie Lewie studied physics and took up Russian because his girlfriend is from Khabarovsk. He tells Maria about Somerset, his two trips to Russia and his plans for music.
- Прогулка по Третьяковской галерее A walk through the Tretyakov Gallery Dasha walks you past the Tretyakov's best-known paintings, from Kiprensky's Pushkin to Serov's Girl with Peaches, and tells the story behind each one.
- רש"י על בראשית Rashi on Genesis Genesis with Rashi beside it, comment by comment, each one opening with the words it explains.
- רש"י על שמות Rashi on Exodus Exodus with Rashi beside it, comment by comment, each one opening with the words it explains.
- רש"י על ויקרא Rashi on Leviticus Leviticus with Rashi beside it, comment by comment, each one opening with the words it explains.
- רש"י על במדבר Rashi on Numbers Numbers with Rashi beside it, comment by comment, each one opening with the words it explains.
- רש"י על דברים Rashi on Deuteronomy Deuteronomy with Rashi beside it, comment by comment, each one opening with the words it explains.
- נשים, תציעו נישואין Women, propose marriage An opinion piece arguing that women should be the ones to propose.
- 2019 היא שנת ה-JOMO 2019 is the year of JOMO On the joy of missing out, and staying home without regret.
- אימפרוביזציה: דייט קורע Improv: a hilarious date Two improvisers play out a first date that goes sideways.
- מתי אתה בא? When are you coming? Elad and Lihi, a couple, on waiting for someone who is always late.
- ממחר דיאטה Diet starts tomorrow A one-minute sketch about the diet that always starts tomorrow.
- ניקיון של גבר A man's cleaning Elad and Lihi on what counts as a clean house, and who decides.
- קרובים קרובים: איך מקבלים הוצ' רכב? Krovim Krovim: how do you get a car allowance? A scene from the classic family sitcom about a perk at work.
- מה זאת אהבה? ט"ו באב בחוף צמח, 1998 What is love? Tu B'Av at Tzemach Beach, 1998 Couples on a beach in 1998 answer one question: what is love.
- מה ילדים יודעים על אהבה? What do kids know about love? Children in 1975 say what they think love is.
- בגידה זה לחיות בשקר Cheating is living a lie Igal and Masha act out a couple's argument about trust.
- ברוקולי: המתכון הכי פשוט Broccoli, the simplest recipe A one-minute broccoli recipe, said as it is cooked.
- סלט חסה הכי טעים The tastiest lettuce salad A lettuce salad and its dressing, step by step.
- נאגטס בציפוי תפוצ'יפס Potato-chip nuggets Vegan nuggets coated in crushed potato chips.
- מבחן הטעימות: הבורגר הטעים ביותר בישראל Taste test: the best burger in Israel A blind tasting of vegan burgers, and a verdict.
- מה טבעונים אוכלים בירושלים? What do vegans eat in Jerusalem? A quick walk through vegan food in Jerusalem.
- פלאפל או מקדונלדס? מבט, 1995 Falafel or McDonald's? Mabat, 1995 A 1995 news item on the first McDonald's and the falafel stand.
- מזון מהיר או אוכל גורמה? (2003) Fast food or gourmet? (2003) Israelis in 2003 on what they would rather eat.
- לאן נעלם המוקרם? תרבות האוכל החדשה (1993) Where did the gratin go? Israel's new food (1993) A 1993 report on how Israeli restaurants were changing.
- איך מכינים קיורטוש How to make kürtőskalács A Hungarian chimney cake, baked on a spit at home.
- ככה קונים בשר בשנת 2024 How to buy meat in 2024 At a kosher butcher, choosing cuts and asking the right questions.
- Le Petit Chaperon rouge Little Red Riding Hood A village girl carries a cake and a pot of butter to her grandmother, stops to talk to a wolf in the wood, and tells him where she is going. Perrault's version, with no huntsman and a moral in verse at the end.
- La Chèvre de monsieur Seguin Monsieur Seguin's Goat Daudet writes to a poet friend who will not take a steady job, and tells him about Blanquette, a little goat who would rather have the mountain than her rope. She fights the wolf all night.
- La Folle The Madwoman A woman has kept to her bed for fifteen years since a run of deaths in her family. When the Prussians occupy the town, an officer takes her refusal to get up as contempt.
- La Parure The Necklace A clerk's wife borrows a diamond necklace from a rich friend for one evening at a ministry ball, and loses it on the way home. Ten years of work follow.
- Une vendetta A Vendetta In Bonifacio, on the cliffs of Corsica, a widow's only son is killed in a quarrel and his killer escapes to Sardinia. She is old and alone, and she has a dog.
- Le Comble du darwinisme The Height of Darwinism An old man remembers his years as a careless pharmacy apprentice, when he argued about Darwin every afternoon with a pious old bore. The bore had a white sheepdog called Black, and the apprentice had a laboratory.
- Un philosophe A Philosopher A lazy customs officer on the coast spends his days fishing with five children he calls the Sub-inspector, the Norwegian, the Broker, the Insurer and Monsieur l'Abbé. One evening the narrator asks him why.
- Le Secret de maître Cornille Master Cornille's Secret An old fife player tells how the steam mills came to the country and stopped every windmill but old Cornille's. His sails kept turning, and nobody could say what he was grinding.
- Les Étoiles The Stars A shepherd who sees no one for weeks on the Luberon gets his supplies one Sunday from the farmer's daughter. A flooded river keeps her on the mountain for the night, and he tells her the names of the stars.
- Coco Coco On the richest farm in the district the mistress keeps a very old white horse out of kindness, and a fifteen-year-old farmhand has to look after him. The boy hates the useless animal.
- La Main The Hand A magistrate tells a circle of ladies about an Englishman he knew in Ajaccio, who kept a severed hand chained to his wall. One morning the Englishman was found strangled.
- Le Crime au père Boniface Old Boniface's Crime A country postman with a short round reads a murder story in the newspaper he is delivering. At the new tax collector's house he hears screams, and runs for the gendarmes.
- Farce normande A Norman Joke The richest farmer in the district, a hunter before anything else, is getting married. At the wedding feast a guest shouts that the poachers will have a fine night of it under this moon.
- Souvenir A Memory A man remembers a spring Sunday when he was twenty-five and a clerk in a Paris ministry: a walk alone in the woods outside the city, and a quarrelling married couple who had lost their way.
- לפני כולם - מאבק הנכים נמשך: איפה הביטוח הלאומי? The Disability Protest Goes On: Where Is Bituach Leumi? A news commentator on the disability protest and the government's allowance plan: who gets how many shekels a month, and why it falls short.
- שימו לב: קופות החולים הכריזו שיסבסדו את זריקות הרזיה The Health Funds Will Subsidise Weight-Loss Injections Two presenters go through which kupat cholim pays for which weight-loss injection under the supplementary plan, and by how much.
- גן זה לא מחסן A Kindergarten Is Not a Storeroom Parents and staff argue for a third aide in the gan: what overcrowded kindergartens do to children, said plainly and with feeling.
- הנגשת מרכז שירות לקוחות 2700* של שירותי בריאות כללית לאנשים חרשים וכבדי שמיעה Clalit's *2700 Line Opens to Deaf Callers A short announcement: how deaf and hard-of-hearing members can now reach Clalit's service centre through remote interpreting.
- האם שכר גבוה מבטיח חופש כלכלי? Does a High Salary Mean Financial Freedom? A financial adviser, caught in a downpour, explains how people on good salaries still end up in money trouble.
- ביקורת לקוח סמוי ציון 10 מ 10 לאתר האינטרנט של ביטוח לאומי בוצע עי constructive audit com Ten out of Ten for the Bituach Leumi Website Half a minute of praise for doing everything online: no more faxes, no more printing forms and sending them back.
- ביטוח סיעודי בקופת חולים #סיעודי Long-Term Care Insurance through Your Health Fund Many people pay for long-term care insurance through their kupat cholim without knowing it. What it is and how to check.
- מה להכין לקראת נסיעה לחו"ל? What to Prepare Before Flying Abroad A doctor and a presenter pack the family medicine kit for a summer trip, item by item.
- שילוב תרופות ללא מרשם ומינוני יתר Over-the-Counter Medicines and Overdoses Why buying pills off the pharmacy shelf is not as harmless as it feels, and which combinations to avoid.
- טיבי תובע עדיפות לקשישים בתורים לבדיקות בקופות החולים Priority for the Elderly in Health-Fund Queues A Knesset member and physician asks why older patients wait weeks for a geriatrician, and what should change.
- ביקורת לקוח סמוי לשרות הלקוחות ואתר האינטרנט של ביטוח לאומי, ציון 10 מ 10 Ten out of Ten for Bituach Leumi's Customer Service A short, happy review of Bituach Leumi's phone service and its technical support.
- בעקבות האדם שנדבק בפוליו: החיסונים שחשוב לעשות After the Polio Case: Which Vaccines to Get A doctor explains why polio is back in the news and which vaccinations adults should check they have.
- כיצד מתמודדים עם המחסור החמור בתרופות בבתי המרקחת? The Shortage of Medicines in Pharmacies Everyday medicines like Acamol are running short. A pharmacist explains why, and what to do in the meantime.
- ארגון קשר סרטון מיצוי זכויות - זכאות לטיפולים בקופת חולים וביחידה להתפתחות הילד Your Rights: Treatments at the Health Fund and the Child Development Unit For parents of children in special settings: when the kupat cholim must still provide physiotherapy or speech therapy.
- שאלו אותי למה לשלם לך אם יש את ביטוח לאומי? #פרישה Why Pay an Adviser if Bituach Leumi Advises for Free? Retirement planning and fixing your rights are not the same as Bituach Leumi's advice. Under a minute on the difference.
- האם ניתן להביא ילדים בריאים גן אם אני ובעלי נושאים את אותו גן למחלה? Healthy Children When Both Parents Carry the Same Gene A viewer's question to a professor: what it means when both partners carry the same gene, and the options that exist.
- נגישות לבריאות Access to Healthcare A paralysed sound technician and his father fight for the motorised wheelchair Bituach Leumi says he is entitled to.
- עובדים במשפחה Working for the Family Business Bituach Leumi refused an old-age pension to a woman who worked in her family's company. A lawyer explains why the case matters to many.
- ארגון קשר סרטון מיצוי זכויות - ביטוח לאומי Your Rights: Bituach Leumi For families of a newly diagnosed child: what Bituach Leumi is, what it provides and why to file a claim early.
- מה כדאי להכין לפני הטיסה לחו"ל? ד"ר איתי גל Medical Tips Before Flying Abroad A doctor's short list for the medical side of a summer trip, whatever the destination.
- כימיה בראיון עבודה Chemistry in a Job Interview Half a minute on why a smile and the right tone matter as much as the CV.
- חוג רובוטיקה לילדי מועדונית "לילך" בשכונת התקווה A Robotics Club in Hatikva Children at an after-school centre in south Tel Aviv build robots, and the staff say why equal opportunity starts here.
- תרגום מרחוק לשפת סימנים בבית החולים "איכילוב" ובקופת החולים "מכבי" סניף ראשון לציון Remote Sign-Language Interpreting at Ichilov and Maccabi A new pilot lets deaf patients reach an interpreter by video at the hospital and the kupat cholim.
- שפת גוף בראיון עבודה רגיל Body Language in a Job Interview A staged interview: "tell me about yourself", and what the candidate's posture says before she does.
- ההישג שיחסוך לרבים מאיתנו מעל 1,000 שקלים בשנה Saving a Thousand Shekels on Duplicate Health Insurance Straight from the Knesset Health Committee: why many people pay twice for surgery cover, and what changed.
- בית ספר יסודי תל חי - קרית שמונה - סרטון תדמית - סטודיו גולן Tel Hai School, Kiryat Shmona An elementary school introduces itself: its staff, its motto and a day in its classrooms.
- סכנה - בית ספר Danger: the Walk to School Seven hundred pupils in Lod cross traffic with no crossing or signs on their way to class.
- יש לכם ניירות ערך בחשבון בנק? הבנק עושה עליכם סיבוב Holding Securities at the Bank? Check the Fees How a pensioner paid his bank 69,000 shekels a year in fees, and how his daughter got it back.
- מה ציפיות השכר שלך What Are Your Salary Expectations? The question every interview asks, and how to research an answer before you walk in.
- בית מרקחת חינם 💊 💊💊 A Free Pharmacy Yad Sarah's community pharmacy gives medicine free to people choosing between food and treatment.
- סרטון דמויות עבור משרד הפנים - הרפורמה לרישוי עסקים Business Licensing Reform, Explained An animated guide from the Ministry of the Interior to the licences every business needs before its first customer.
- סימולציית השכר של מופת Mofet's Salary Simulator A teachers' institute shows how to estimate your pay for a new role, rank or degree.
- השינוי בפטור על קיבוע זכויות בשנת 2025 #קיבועזכויות The 2025 Change to the Pension Exemption Under a minute on the tax exemption for fixing pension rights, and why it did not rise as planned.
- סימולציה רפואית - מטופל כבד שמיעה בפגישה עם רופאה (עם הסבר קופץ) A Doctor's Appointment, Hard of Hearing A staged visit to the doctor: headaches, bad sleep, and the misunderstandings a hearing loss adds.
- למה אנשים נשארים עניים? Why Do People Stay Poor? People in the street give their answers, some of them harsh, to a question about poverty in Israel.
- למה צריך בית ספר משותף בתל אביב? Why a Joint School in Tel Aviv? A parent explains why she wants a school where religious and secular children learn together.
- טיפול שיניים אחד לילדים כמעט גמר לי על התקציב #שיניים #תקציב One Dental Treatment Nearly Wiped Out My Budget Braces or a single implant can swallow a month's cash flow. A financial adviser on planning for children's dental costs.
- ילדים מאחורי סורגים Children Behind Bars For the first time, Interior Ministry inspectors detain migrant children with their families. A short report.
- ועדה סמויה The Hidden Committee What happens when the medicine you need is not in the health basket, and who decides.
- גם אתה לא מסתכל בחשבון הבנק שלך? 🙈 Do You Avoid Looking at Your Bank Account? A friendly live chat about the habit of not checking your account, and the small steps that fix it.
- ראיון עבודה – שאלות קשות – חולשות וחוזקות – Lev Job Job Interview: Strengths and Weaknesses A careers adviser takes the hardest interview questions one by one.
- מרכז הסימולציה בקריה האקדמית אונו - ראיון עבודה A Job Interview, Simulated "Why did you leave your last job?" A staged interview at a college's simulation centre.
- הצגת חסרונות בראיון עבודה, חסרונות להגיד בראיון עבודה, מה לענות בראיון עבודה, חסרונות שאומרים בראיון What to Say When They Ask Your Weaknesses Beyond "perfectionism": honest weaknesses to name in an interview, and how to say them.
- בצל מלחמה: הדברים שיעזרו לנו לחזור לשגרה After the War: Getting Back to Routine A doctor on the small daily things that help people return to normal life.
- השקט הדרוש למטופלים המגיעים לבתי המרקחת לרכוש תרופות A Little Quiet at the Pharmacy Counter Why patients buying medicine deserve privacy at the counter, from a presenter it has bothered for years.
- השכר האמיתי The Real Wage Behind the average-wage headline: the figure that shows what most workers actually earn.
- איך אפשר לחסוך יותר בקלות ולהכפיל את הכסף בחיסכון בזמן קצר? Saving More, and Doubling It Simple ways to put more money aside each month and let it grow.
- צנתור לב וירטואלי: בדיקה מצילת חיים שכדאי להכיר- ד"ר טטיאנה יוהנס Virtual Cardiac Catheterisation A cardiologist explains a scan that finds heart disease early, without a catheter.
- הנחה בארנונה A discount on the arnona A new immigrant asks the city about the arnona.
- קצבת ילדים The child allowance A new father calls Bituach Leumi about the allowance.
- הכרטיס שאבד The lost card A woman calls the bank: her credit card is gone.
- תור לדרכון An appointment for a passport At the Interior Ministry, without an appointment.
- חשבון החשמל The electricity bill Paying a bill at the post office.
- חיסון נגד שפעת A flu shot Booking the nurse at the kupat cholim.
- המרשם The prescription At the pharmacy, the medicine is out of stock.
- בדיקת דם A blood test Early in the morning, at the clinic.
- יום מחלה A sick day Calling the manager in the morning.
- חום A fever A mother calls the doctor about her son.
- רישום לגן Registering for the gan A father asks how to register his daughter.
- מסיבה בגן A party in the gan The ganenet tells a father what to bring.
- מתנה למורה A present for the teacher The parents' committee collects money.
- חוג ציור A painting class A mother asks about an after-school class.
- פגישה עם המורה Meeting the teacher A father hears how his daughter is doing at school.
- אין מים חמים No hot water A tenant calls the landlord about the boiler.
- ועד הבית The building committee A neighbour explains the monthly payment.
- התלוש The payslip A question about this month's pay.
- היום הראשון The first day A new worker is shown around.
- יום חופש A day off Asking the manager for a day off.
- פתיחת חשבון Opening an account A new customer opens a bank account.
- הוראת קבע A standing order Setting up the rent to pay itself every month.
- מינוס Overdrawn A customer asks the bank why her account is in the red.
- החזר מס A tax refund A friend explains the tax credit for new immigrants.
- המרת רישיון Converting a licence A new immigrant asks how to change her driving licence.
- כתובת חדשה A new address After a move, changing the address on the ID.
- דמי אבטלה Unemployment benefit After losing her job, a woman asks what she is owed.
- דו"ח חניה A parking ticket A friend explains the residents' parking permit.
- חשבון המים The water bill A bill four times too high, and a leak to look for.
- משלוח לחו"ל Sending a parcel abroad At the post office, regular or express.
- הרשמה לאולפן Signing up for ulpan A new immigrant joins an evening class.
- סל קליטה The absorption basket A friend explains the money new immigrants get.
- החלפת כסף Changing money Dollars into shekels at the exchange counter.
- בלון גז A gas canister The gas has run out, and dinner is waiting.
- חברת אינטרנט חדשה A new internet company A customer switches to a cheaper provider.
- הכספומט The ATM The cash machine kept the card.
- צ'קים Cheques The landlord wants twelve cheques, and a friend explains.
- ארנונה בתשלומים Arnona in instalments Choosing how to pay the city tax.
- תרגום מסמכים Translating documents A birth certificate, translated and certified.
- טעינת רב-קו Loading a Rav-Kav At the station, putting money on the travel card.
- רופא משפחה A family doctor A new member of the kupa chooses a doctor.
- כאב שיניים A toothache A man calls the dentist with a toothache.
- משקפיים חדשים New glasses An eye test at the optician's.
- במיון In the emergency room A long wait, and a nurse who helps.
- מתקשרים ל-101 Calling 101 A woman calls an ambulance for her father.
- בטיפת חלב At Tipat Halav A father brings his baby daughter for a vaccine.
- אלרגיה An allergy Itchy eyes in spring, and a question for the pharmacist.
- פיזיותרפיה Physiotherapy A knee that still hurts, and a referral.
- התוצאות The results A doctor calls back about a blood test.
- סירופ נגד שיעול Cough syrup A father asks the pharmacist about his son's cough.
- רופא מומחה The specialist Three months for a dermatologist, or a drive to Netanya.
- בדיקת היריון A pregnancy check-up Tired in the fifth month, and good news.
- יותר מדי שמש Too much sun A day at the beach ends with a headache.
- כאב גב Back pain A heavy box at work, and a colleague who helps.
- האפליקציה של הקופה The kupa app A friend shows how to book a doctor in the app.
- מעבר קופה Changing kupat cholim A woman wants a health fund closer to home.
- חתך באצבע A cut finger An accident with the knife while cooking.
- בדיקת שמיעה A hearing test A man who doesn't hear well in one ear.
- מתרגם An interpreter A new immigrant asks for help with Hebrew at the clinic.
- לא ישן טוב Not sleeping well Coffee, a phone in bed, and a doctor's advice.
- כיתה א' First grade A mother brings her son on the first day of school.
- רשימת ציוד The supplies list Buying school supplies from the list.
- כינים Lice The ganenet tells a father there are lice in the gan.
- הטיול השנתי The school trip A teacher asks a mother to sign for the trip.
- המעיל האבוד The lost jacket Two parents sort out a jacket that went home with the wrong child.
- הצהרון The after-school programme A father asks about the programme after school.
- בייביסיטר A babysitter A father calls a babysitter for Thursday night.
- חולה בבית הספר Sick at school The school calls a father to pick up his son.
- הזמנה ליום הולדת A birthday invitation A father invites a classmate to his daughter's party.
- עזרה בשיעורי הבית Help with homework A mother looks for an English tutor for her son.
- ההסעה The school bus A father meets the driver of his son's school bus.
- שיעורי שחייה Swimming lessons A mother signs her daughter up to learn to swim.
- הסייעת החדשה The new assistant A father meets the gan's new assistant.
- הסנדוויץ' The sandwich Two parents decide what goes in their son's sandwich.
- טלפון מהמורה A call from the teacher The teacher calls a father about a fight at break.
- קייטנה Summer camp A father registers his daughter for summer camp.
- כרטיס לספרייה A library card A mother gets her son his first library card.
- בגינת המשחקים At the playground Two parents get talking while their children play.
- מסיבת חנוכה The Hanukkah party A teacher tells a mother about the class Hanukkah party.
- התעודה The report card Two parents read their son's report card.
- שותף לדירה A flatmate A woman with a free room talks to a man who called about it.
- חותמים על החוזה Signing the lease A new tenant signs the contract with the landlord.
- יום ההובלה Moving day The movers arrive, and there's no lift.
- רעש מהשכנים Noise from the neighbours Loud music every night, and a polite talk at the door.
- הזבל והמיחזור Rubbish and recycling A new tenant asks where everything goes.
- המזגן התקלקל The air conditioner broke Calling the company about a noisy air conditioner.
- טכנאי האינטרנט The internet technician Slow internet, and a cable that needs changing.
- סידור העבודה The shift schedule Three night shifts, and ulpan in the morning.
- מתי המשכורת? When is payday? A new worker asks HR when the salary comes in.
- איחור לישיבה Late for the meeting The bus didn't come, and the meeting has already started.
- עבודה מהבית Working from home Asking the manager for a day at home.
- שעות נוספות Overtime Saving for a car, and asking for more hours.
- אין חשמל No electricity The power is out in one flat, and a neighbour helps by phone.
- המשלוח The delivery A wardrobe arrives late, and someone else will put it together.
- המקלט The shelter A new tenant asks where the building's shelter is.
- החניה בבניין Parking in the building A new tenant looks for his parking spot.
- ארוחת צהריים Lunch Colleagues go out for shawarma.
- הודעה מוקדמת Giving notice Telling the manager about a new job.
- קרן הפנסיה The pension fund A worker asks HR about her pension.
- מכונת הכביסה The washing machine The water won't drain, and the technician finds a surprise.
- עמלה בבנק A bank charge A strange fee on the statement turns out to be a foreign payment.
- משכנתא A mortgage A first meeting at the bank about buying a flat.
- ארנונה אחרי מעבר Arnona after moving A bill arrives for the old flat. Who pays for which month?
- אצל רואת החשבון At the accountant's A new immigrant learns he may be owed tax back.
- מענק לידה The birth grant A new mother calls Bituach Leumi and finds the wrong account on file.
- ערעור על דו"ח Appealing a fine A friend explains how to appeal a parking fine when the sign was hidden.
- ביטול מנוי Cancelling a phone plan A customer leaves for a cheaper plan and learns what happens to her phone.
- עסק קטן A small business A friend explains how to start out as a freelancer.
- שריטה באוטו A scratched car Someone scratched her car and left a note. The insurance agent explains the claim.
- הכרה בתואר Recognising a degree An engineer from abroad asks how to get his degree recognised.
- מה כואב לך? What hurts? Three days of fever and a sore throat, told to the doctor.
- ביקורת אחרי דלקת אוזניים After the ear infection A mother brings her son back to check his ear.
- ביטוח משלים Supplementary insurance What the kupa's extra insurance covers, and what it costs.
- תרופה גנרית A generic medicine The pharmacist explains why the box looks different.
- מחכים לניתוח Waiting for surgery A man calls the hospital: when is his knee operation?
- הפגישה הראשונה The first session A new olah meets a psychologist for the first time.
- התרגילים בבית Exercises at home The physiotherapist goes over the knee exercises again.
- אחרי התאונה After the accident A small crash at the lights, and a sore neck an hour later.
- מטפלת לאבא A carer for Dad A son looks for someone to look after his father.
- אצל הדיאטנית At the dietitian's High blood sugar, and a plan he can actually keep.
- בחירת מגמה Choosing a track A mother helps her son choose his high-school track.
- אצל היועצת At the counsellor's A father tells the school counsellor his son is being bullied.
- לפני הבגרות Before the bagrut A daughter can't sleep before her maths exam.
- האבחון The assessment A mother books a learning assessment for her daughter.
- טלפון בכיתה Phones in class A teacher tells a mother her son plays on his phone in class.
- לישון אצל חבר The sleepover Two parents arrange a sleepover for their sons.
- תנועת נוער The youth movement A teenager asks her father if she can join the Scouts.
- הצו הראשון The first call-up A mother and her son talk about his first letter from the army.
- יום שביתה Strike day Two neighbours share the childcare when the schools strike.
- הבת מצווה The bat mitzvah Two parents plan their daughter's bat mitzvah and its cost.
- העלאת שכר דירה The rent goes up A tenant bargains with her landlord over a rise in the rent.
- הפיקדון The deposit A former tenant wants his deposit back; the landlady says the wall was damaged.
- השיפוץ The renovation A neighbour about to renovate agrees on quiet hours with the woman upstairs.
- שיחת משוב The yearly review A manager gives an employee his yearly feedback: praise, one thing to fix, and a goal.
- עם עמית לעבודה A word with a colleague A woman tells a colleague he presented her idea as his own, and they sort it out.
- משרה חלקית Going part-time An employee asks his manager to cut his hours to look after his sick father.
- הצעת עבודה The job offer A candidate bargains over salary and travel before she signs.
- תיקון המעלית Fixing the lift At the building meeting, a resident on the first floor asks why he should pay for the lift.
- החשבונות The bills Two flatmates argue over a high electricity bill and set up a shared kitty.
- פיטורים Laid off An employee learns his department is closing and asks HR about his rights.
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- מבט שבועי · 21 בספטמבר 2026 · Simplified · 3,000 words שבוע של יום קטלני בכבישים, איומים הדדיים בין וושינגטון לטהרן, ופרידה מעיתונאי ותיק בפריז.
- מבט שבועי · 21 בספטמבר 2026 · Native · 5,000+ words שבוע של יום קטלני בכבישים, איומים הדדיים בין וושינגטון לטהרן, ופרידה מעיתונאי ותיק בפריז.
- מבט השבוע · 24 באוגוסט 2026 · Easy · 1,000 words שב"כ מאשר חילוץ בהול של בנו של ראש הממשלה מפלורידה, ברית ביטחונית חדשה מתכנסת באיסטנבול, והפועל ירושלים תובעת מיליונים על שחקן שעבר להפועל תל אביב.
- מבט השבוע · 24 באוגוסט 2026 · Simplified · 3,000 words שב"כ מאשר חילוץ בהול של בנו של ראש הממשלה מפלורידה, ברית ביטחונית חדשה מתכנסת באיסטנבול, והפועל ירושלים תובעת מיליונים על שחקן שעבר להפועל תל אביב.
- מבט השבוע · 24 באוגוסט 2026 · Native · 5,000+ words שב"כ מאשר חילוץ בהול של בנו של ראש הממשלה מפלורידה, ברית ביטחונית חדשה מתכנסת באיסטנבול, והפועל ירושלים תובעת מיליונים על שחקן שעבר להפועל תל אביב.