Surrounded by His Shelter

BASED ON TRUE STORIES OF REAL KIDS

Moving day arrived… but there was no moving truck, no goodbyes, and luckily no packing. There was some building & schlepping as we moved ourselves out of our house and into the sukkah that now was taking up the entire deck. Why do we do this? Why do we eat & sleep & spend time sitting in this sukkah instead of our homes?

Every year in school, we learn the lesson of how Hashem surrounded B’nai Yisroel with clouds in the Midbar, and so we sit in our sukkah to remember that. Let’s take a little journey back in time to the year 2448 and take a peek at what it might have been like for kids in those days.

Shhhh, someone is whispering about sheep and putting blood on doorposts.

This is it!!! It’s happening for real! It’s what our mothers have been talking about for years. We are going to leave Mitzrayim. Hashem is taking us out!

How can it be? Pharaoh will never let! I don’t know! But my mother told me it’s for sure going to happen. Hashem promised it to our great, great, great, great-grandfather Avraham. We are going to go to a new land. A place called Eretz Canaan. I’m telling you! It’s going to happen. Look! All the makkos that happened can only be from Hashem. We are going to go free!

A short time later…

The desert night is so cold. Back in Mitzrayim, we could at least go to bed sometimes. My feet are tired. And it’s scary. What if Edom comes to find us? I’m petrified! And all those Mitzriyim chasing us! And we were so stuck. I thought we would end up captured and back in Mitzrayim.

But Hashem saved us! It was so unbelievable! I could never have dreamed up a moment like that. The wind… and then the water just split. It was incredible. I will remember that day forever!

You know, when I think back to the years that we suffered in Mitzrayim, it almost feels like another lifetime. Here in the desert, life is so different. We are really living with Hashem. He sends us the mon every morning. There’s no way to forget where our food comes from. And, we have these ananim surrounding us. Hashem is here with us every second in such a real way.

It’s been many years since we traveled through the desert, but Am Yisroel has not forgotten what it means to live with Hashem.

Just like in the hardest, darkest times, Hashem sent us ananim to surround us and protect us, He still does that today. Sometimes we forget to look for the shelter Hashem sends us, and that’s why Sukkos is such an important reminder.

We leave our homes. There are cold, windy nights and sunny, hot days, but we don’t stay indoors to stay comfortable. We leave our homes, we move outside. And, we choose to live with Hashem.

The lesson of Sukkos is a lesson to take into the year. When things feel hard and scary and lonely, we are never alone. It’s up to us to remember to choose to live through our challenges with Hashem.

Let’s take a peek into the diaries of some kids who’ve had some tough times that made them wonder how they’d get through. But these kids found Hashem in their challenges and show us how they chose to be heroes.

SHLOMO, AGE 12

September 14, 2021
I got sent to the office again today during davening. Rebbi said I was being too silly. I wasn’t trying to. I just thought it would be fun to stand on my chair & shout the davening in a funny voice. Then I had to sit in the office for an hour.

November 8, 2021
I have ADHD. The doctor said that’s why I can’t sit in class. It’s also why I forget to eat breakfast and get into trouble a lot. Now I have to take a pill every day.

December 9, 2021
I learned how to swallow the pills, and I don’t mind that. But I feel funny during the day now, like I’m not really me. I don’t like this ADHD thing. Why can’t I just be a regular kid?

February 15, 2023
Some days I hate having ADHD. The hardest part of it is feeling like everyone else can do things I can’t remember to do.

I start getting dressed in the morning, and 30 minutes later, I’m reading a book with one sock hanging halfway off my foot. It’s funny, but also annoying.

And I have so many unfinished projects. I’m a really good artist. I bet if I finished my comic strips, they’d be really good. But, I never finish them. I always end up starting things, getting distracted, and then doing something else.

September 8, 2025
You know what’s really funny? Four other boys in my class also have ADHD, and we’ve kinda become an ADHD group. We all laugh about the funny parts of ADHD. The crazy things we can do.

As I’ve gotten older, I realize that because of my ADHD, I am really good at sports. I have tons of energy that makes me able to play really hard. I also can do something called hyper-focusing. I get really into one thing and give it all my attention. And for me, I hyper-focus on sports.

I also learned that the creativity in my art is part of the ADHD. I just have to figure out how to finish my projects!

And this year, as I’m preparing for my Bar Mitzvah, my rebbi gave me an idea. I started to use that hyper-focusing for davening. I imagine myself standing in front of Hashem. And then, when I look into my siddur, I feel like I’m really there. Just me and Hashem, alone in this amazing place.

I didn’t ask Hashem for ADHD, and some days it’s the most annoying thing. But, I know that my super fun personality & huge amount of energy are part of this gift from Hashem.

TZIPORAH, AGE 16

June 10, 2021
This is it. I have an incurable disease. I’m not even sure what it means. My mother took me to the doctor with a strange thing on my arm and he said something about an autoimmune disease with no cure. I’m not sure what it means but it doesn’t sound good. I think my mom is trying to be brave for me & saying we’re going to find the best doctors and I’ll be ok, but I don’t think she believes that. I’m getting petrified.

July 8, 2021
Today we went to a top specialist to check my arm. She wants to check my heart and lungs too to see if the disease is all over my body. She’s starting treatment at the same time. The treatment involves having an IV in for a few days every month. I’m petrified of needles. I cry. I scream. I run.

How am I going to manage this? I have to sleep with the IV in my arm. My life is so different from a few months ago. I used to be a regular girl worrying about friends, clothes and hair products. Now I’m worrying about needles, scans & if I’m going to have trouble breathing soon.

July 19, 2021
My first treatment was yesterday and it was horrible. Last night I barely slept. My arm can’t bend because the IV line is in. It’s hard to be up at night when the whole world is sleeping.

As I was crying silently in my room, I had this weird feeling. It was like Hashem was near me. My house was super quiet, and it was so dark, but I didn’t feel alone. It was as if Hashem was hugging me in my pain. After that I dozed off a bit.

June 14, 2022
It seems like no one knows how to cure this. There’s no one to turn to. And maybe that’s what Hashem has shown me. My mother keeps saying we do our best and daven, daven, daven. That’s probably all we can do now. The doctors can’t solve this and their treatments keep making me feel sick.

Hashem, it’s only you. Please heal me! I want to be healthy.

September 20, 2022
I met the strangest doctor today. He’s one of those natural ones that I used to make fun of. He did all sorts of strange things to me. He’s talking about the body resetting itself. He wants me to eat differently and use some oils. As long as there are no needles I’m in. Anything rather than the needles.

September 1, 2025
I’ve been healthy for 2 & a half years now. It’s hard to believe. I go to this doctor every 2 months, and he works on my body to keep me healthy. My mother always reminds me on the drive there that we go to him, because he’s Hashem’s shlichus.

My arm has healed a lot. It may never be perfect, but I’m ok with that. My heart & lungs are healthy. My body can do anything I need to do. This journey has shown me that doctors work for Hashem. They said there was no cure for this disease, but Hashem has healed me. Through the hardest times, when I was so alone, I felt Hashem at my side so much. I don’t know what the future will bring, but I know that my struggle made me closer to Hashem than most girls my age are.

MIRI, AGE 14

May 12, 2022
It’s been 2 months since my parents got divorced, and I don’t know if it will ever stop feeling horrible. I don’t want any of my friends to know, but I think they already do. I haven’t told anyone, but somehow these things get around. Each time I speak to someone else and they bring it up, it feels so awkward all over again.

It’s so hard to adjust to all the changes. I miss seeing my father every day. It feels strange to have to call him if I want to say “Hi.” And then, the Shabbosos when I’m at his house… I miss my mother.

September 20, 2022
My sister told me something that really changed my outlook on this whole divorce situation. She said I get to choose, will I be a survivor or a thriver? It’s in my hands. My choice. I’m going to be a thriver. I know if Hashem put me here, I can overcome this challenge. I’m not just going to be OK. I’m going to be amazing.

November 15, 2023
This last year and a half have been a rollercoaster. The highs have been so high. The lows have been so low. Now that my father is not with me very much, I have learned to turn to my Father above. Hashem, my Father, loves me so much. He is here with me every moment.

Sometimes it feels like everyone in my family is just so busy coping, I can’t really talk to them about my pain. So I’ve grown so much closer to my Father in Shomayim. When I daven it feels so much more real. He’s always listening.

August 5, 2025
Tisha B’Av this year was so real for me. I kept thinking about the pain of the Shechina. Since the Bais HamiKdash is gone, the Shechina doesn’t have a home in this world. I feel like that sometimes too.

I’m always packing and somehow also always missing things in both of my parents’ homes.

I can’t wait for Moshiach to be here and, until then, I will keep talking to Hashem. I hope one day I can be an inspiration for other girls going through this too.

LEVI, AGE 13

January 1, 2025
It’s Chanukah tonight. I should be at a party, but instead I’m home alone, and I keep calling my mother but she’s not answering my calls anymore. I skipped the party because I get very anxious before family parties when I don’t know so many people there. But staying home wasn’t really a better choice. I hate being home alone. It’s another one of the things that trigger my anxiety.

I hope my family comes home soon…

February 10, 2025
Nighttime is so hard. I get into bed, and my mind starts racing. I get this uncomfortable feeling in my body, and I ask my mother to come back inside my room.

Everyone in my family thinks I’m a baby. They don’t know how hard these feelings are.

I wish I wasn’t so scared of being alone. I think that’s the hardest part of my anxiety.

April 22, 2025
On the first night of Pesach when we only say the first part of Shema, my father gave me a leather Shema booklet. He told me to try saying the whole Shema from it every night and to ask Hashem to allow me to feel Him close.

I’ve been trying it for over a week now & it’s helped me. I say Shema looking inside, and then I close my eyes and try to just rest. I picture the dark sky and Hashem is up there watching me. He is with me in this struggle.

July 24, 2025
Some days have been better for me lately. I stayed upstairs alone for a bit the other day and realized I wasn’t even scared. It was such a nice surprise.

Going through this painful anxiety has made me so much more sensitive to other people. My mother keeps telling me that I am the best older brother, and I think she’s right. The younger kids love hanging out with me. At family simchos when I have to go, I end up hanging out with the kids, because I get nervous around adults. They all love when I organize things. Maybe I can be a camp counselor next summer.

August 19, 2025
I have so far to go, but I’ve gotten so much better at dealing with this anxiety piece of my life. Hashem, I don’t know why I was chosen for this, but I know You chose me.

Some days I feel like it’s too hard to control. I feel uncomfortable in my skin all day.

But I’m having more & more good days. There are many days that I talk to you Hashem & I feel you giving me strength. I know you’ll be with me always, and I’ll be able to fight this anxiety.

Each and every one of us are given challenges. It’s not a mistake. It’s Hashem helping us to grow into the people we are meant to become.

And like the ananim in the desert thousands of years ago, Hashem is so close to us. Surrounding us with love and giving us the strength we need to overcome our challenges.