“If you go anywhere, even paradise, you will miss your home.”

-Malala Yousafzai

Dorothy may have had it right. There is a story of Yankel, the tailor of Pletstk, who dreamt he saw a bridge in Rome guarded by a soldier with a treasure buried beneath it.

In the morning Yankel packed his bag and journeyed to all the way to Rome. When he arrived, he saw the bridge and soldier, just like in his dream! He began digging beneath the bridge. When the soldier stopped him, he told him of his dream.

The soldier laughed, “You fool! I dreamt I saw a treasure buried beneath the stove of a little tailor named Yankel in a Jewish town called Pletstk! Crazy stuff! Now get out of here.”

Yankee immediately turned for home, and pulled up the floor beneath his cast-iron stove. There it was – a buried treasure!

Home may not be the house we grew up in, or sometimes, sadly, the family we grew up with, but each of us has one, somewhere. The longing for home is a function of our souls, only sometimes linked to geography. It is the place where our true treasure lies. We may journey the world over, but as Malala says, even Paradise will not replace it. Home is not only where the heart is, it is our heart, and soul, and G!D willing, destiny.

How can you journey toward home today?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Malala Yousafzai  (born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. She is known mainly for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had  banned girls from attending school. Yousafzai’s advocacy has since grown into an international movement.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.