Here is a centuries-old Armenian riddle by Nerses Shnorhali.

No feathers and no wings it has,
Swifter than a bird it flies,
From land to land it tours and turns,
With companions it returns.

Picture the world map six decades ago. Were all the countries and their flags the same as we know them today? How about traveling a couple of millennia back? What were the Seven Wonders of the ancient world and where did they reside?

Imagine traveling around the world in thirty seconds, while looking at thirty books – each in a different language. That’s one book per second. Imagine the treasures to be discovered in this short amount of time. Is this possible? Yes, indeed, if we have the knowledge of deciphering a letter code.

When in the second half of the last century Isaac Bashevich Singer was awarded a Noble Prize for Literature, he raised an interesting question: “People ask me often, ‘Why do you write in a dying language?’” And he tried to explain: “There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life… e