PARDESThe Mishnah, a paragraph at a time, with the commentary that opens it
If the Gemara feels like too much, this is where most people should actually start (Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 is open in the reader). The Mishnah is short, it is in Hebrew rather than Aramaic, and each paragraph is a complete thought. In the app every mishnah comes with Bartenura, the commentary that has explained it to beginners for five hundred years, and with a plain English explanation of what the mishnah is arguing about and why anyone cared.
What the Mishnah is, in one paragraph
Around the year 200, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi collected the oral law into six orders, sixty-three tractates, about four thousand short paragraphs. Each one is called a mishnah. The Gemara is the record of the next three hundred years of argument about those paragraphs. So when you read a mishnah you are reading the thing everyone else is arguing about, which is a good place to stand.
How each mishnah is explained
Three layers, each one optional. The mishnah itself, vocalized. Bartenura on by default, because that is what a printed Mishnah looks like and what a child in cheder sees. Then the explanation in English: the case the mishnah is describing, the two sides, what is at stake. Ikar Tosafot Yom Tov and the Rambam's commentary are a tap away for anyone who wants the second layer.
Where the Gemara discusses a mishnah, there is a small mark on it. Tap it and you are on the daf, at the line, where the discussion begins. Tap the mark on the daf and you are back in the mishnah. The two books were always one conversation; now they open onto each other.
A mishnah a day, if that's your pace
The app's plan builder takes any goal, Mishnah Berakhot or all of Seder Moed, and a pace or an end date, and lays out a path on the Hebrew calendar with review days. A mishnah a day finishes Berakhot in two months. Two a day finishes the whole Mishnah in about five and a half years, which sounds long until you notice that the years pass anyway.
Questions people ask
Should I learn Mishnah before Gemara?
If you have never learned either, yes, a little. Even a few chapters of Berakhot teach you the vocabulary the Gemara assumes. But nobody has to finish the Mishnah first; most Daf Yomi learners meet each mishnah when the daf reaches it.
Is the English a translation or an explanation?
Both are there. The Davidson English is a literal translation with the explanation interleaved in plain type. Our own explanation is separate and written in ordinary English.
Which tractates are included?
All sixty-three, with Bartenura on every one.
If you're wondering how any of this fits together, the beginner's guide explains Mishnah, Gemara and the daf in one sitting. Or go straight to the day's Gemara.