Police on Thursday morning detained a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of tearing up a siddur belonging to the Reform Movement, the Honenu legal aid society reported. Attorney Rehavia Pilz is representing the boy.
Thursday was the first of the month of Kislev, which was celebrated by the group Women of the Wall wearing talitot and tefillin which are traditionally worn only by Jewish men. The Women of the Wall’s central mission is “to attain social and legal recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah, collectively and aloud, at the Western Wall.”
Incidentally, Kislev’s big holiday, Hanukkah, commemorates the victory of the traditional Jews, Maccabees, over the Helenized Jews, who promoted foreign religious ideas.
Happy Rosh Khodesh!