A recent lecture given by Rav Amnon Yitzchak in which he mentioned the view of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Halevy Wosner Shlita opposing women driving has led to some harsh responses from the non religious community.
Rav Yitzchak explained that Rav Wosner and other prominent rabbonim are in agreement, that is it not fitting for women to drive.
“אין דעת חכמים נוחה מנהיגת נשים כלל וכלל. הרב וואזנר אוסר את זה בתכלית האיסור ויש רבים מן הרבנים שאוסרים”.
Rav Amnon explains that today, the car is the replacement of the wagon and in the days of old, women were not wagon drivers. The rav is critical of those rabbonim who permit women to drive, accusing them of doing so in an effort to find favor in their tzibur’s eyes.
When asked questions on the matter by members of the audience, the rav said “this is halacha because it is not tznius for a woman to be a driver”.
Needless to say the feminist organizations on the internet are abuzz as a result of Rav Amnon’s words.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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20 Responses
Of course. 613 are not enough?
its not just feminists and the non religious world. i cannot imagine anyone normal taking this man seriously any more.
dont get me wrong, if a community like kiryas yoel etc chooses to impose strict rules upon itself that is one thing but for this man to come and pontificate that women driving is only permitted by “4th and 5th class” poskim he is fooling his unintelligent followers and misrepresents the common haluchik view.
Then is it permitted for a woman to be in the front passenger seat? It’s the same level of tznius… Woman not working as wagon drivers does not mean they did not drive wagons in the countryside, where people owned their own wagons. Women did not work as tailors in general either, but did sew… End rant.
It’s the RELIGIOUS community that’s issuing the harsh responses. Rabbi Yitzchak is speaking contrary to the ruling of most rabbonim. Did Rav Elyashiv z’tl, Rav Yosef z’tl, Rav Moshe Feinstein z’tl, or any other universally recognized posek hold this way? Can anyone look out their window in Flatbush, Lakewood, Monsey, Boro Park, Baltimore, or Yerushalayim and NOT see women drivers?
I’m upset with the author’s characterization (I don’t care about the content as it is clearly off the derech) for 2 reasons: (1) is creates more strife between the Chareidim, and the non-Chareidim orthodox for no purpose other than to say “we’re frummer than you, even though what’s being forbidden has been permitted for a century in our community”; and (2)it furthers the disconnect between us and our not-yet orthodox Jewish brothers. Did the author quote a single “secular” person commenting on this? I haven’t seen any non-orthodox comments on this. They couldn’t care less about what Amnon Yitzchak has to say. And all of mainstream orthodoxy agrees, this is not normal.
Please stop your unending incitement of hatred from within our Kehilla. We have enough problems as it is.
I don’t understand the comparison to to wagon drivers. That was a job, and perhaps it can be a precedent to say that women should not be taxi drivers or truck drivers. Not relevant to driving car for personal errands.
It wasn’t tznius for women to be cab drivers because they were outside. When a woman is driving she is only exposed to the outdoors because she is sitting by a window.
People are NOT taking seriously any of the bans, halachos or newest issues from Israel. It denigrates Rabbonim in the eyes of the American klal.
If it works for Bnei Brak, go for it!!! Don’t import it to other neighborhoods.
Very misleading article! He is not talking about woman driving in general- he is talking about a woman being a driver
How many wives of b’nei Torah are working as the sole support of the family? How is this reconciled with the husbands’ obligation in the k’suba to provide material needs to their wives? Rav Amnon Yitzchak would feel very much at home in Saudi Arabia.
There is (or at least used to be) a car service specifically for women which had only women drivers and it was created to increase tznius.
Also I never heard the Lubavitcher rebbe or the previous Satmar rebbe ever say anything against women drivers and neither did Rav Moshe Feinstien and they were 3 of the greatest tzaddikim of the last generation.
Tomorrow Rabbi Yitzchak will be appointed the Chief Rabbi of Saudi Arabia.
The chutzpah here is that he called all the rabbonim that are matir driving “third rate”
Well the only reason he said all this garbage is to show the world that even after he went against EVERY SINGLE gadol in the last election
he wants to show that he is very frum so picks one posed that most of the world did not agree with the psak and trumpets it whilst putting down the rest of כלל ישראל
“כשרע חזיר פיזל״
He is far from the only Rov who holds this. In some communities women do not drive.
whereas any and all express their opinions, only great rabbonim are considered poskim. There are those are are convincing speakers and there are those who do not have the ability to speak; there are those who are deep thinkers and there are those who do not have the ability for deep analysis of difficult halachic sugias.
They do not always come in the same form or person.
Therefore, remember, there is the speaking of one’s opinion which even the readers of YWN may do, and there is the opinions of the great rabonim who probably do not write down their views here.
Rabbi Yitzhak is known as a great and dynamic speaker. Let his kavod be as dear to him as yours is to you.
Even if I dont agree with the reasoning of what he said, I totally agree with what he said for a different reason, women don’t know how to drive, period. specially the frum ones, they drive too slow, take forever to turn on a stop sign, they make you miss the light all the time. bekitzur, ladies don’t have the proper skills of driving. It would be awesome to have less women on the road, I think every man driver would agree to this. please tell me if i’m wrong.
#10 let’s not kid ourselves. Had the satmar rebbe been alive he too would’ve banned it. What “does” satmar know in re to the concept of “al pi darko”.
Baruch Hashem besides for Rav Amnon yitzchok there are many other rabbanim that are competent and machmirim that clearly are ok with women driving. Besides for them being a pain on the road and when they park. This should be accepted all over. Women work extremely hard and a guy that will have a problem with seeing a woman in the drivers seat has a serious yetzer horah issue that needs to be dealt with another way.
Opinions aside, but Rav Wosner did rule this way:
שו”ת שבט הלוי חלק ד סימן א ד”ה ב] בענין
ב] בענין הצניעות מה שנשים לומדות ומרגילות עצמן לנהוג מכונית אוטא, הנה מן הנסיון למדתי שהוא דבר שראוי לאסרו איסור גמור, כי עצם הלמוד גרם כבר וגורם לפריצות והוא ההיפך הגמור מכל כבודה בת מלך פנימה, כמו שעצם הנהיגה הוא ממש להיפך כל כבודה וגו’, האשה חושפת עצמה בזה בשוקים ורחובות לעין כל ראה נכשלת ומכשלת את האחרים, ואין דרכה של אשה במרכב עיין פסחים ג’, אף על פי שהמציאות של רכיבה ע”ג בהמה אינו דומה לגמרי להא דידן מכ”מ בעצם אין דרכה בכך דומה בכמה דברים שקשה לפרש בכתב.
I think all women should listen to him. and I say that, having nothing to do with the fact that I am looking forward to the tremendous decrease in traffic that would result.
Who’s on a diet here?
Well, I’m on a chumra watch. Watching new chumras almost daily which are eroding confidence in so-called gedolim. They’re coming from all over, dear readers.
NYC… all 5 boroughs and State, NJ Lakewood and of course, EY.
Records show women to be better and safer drivers than the macho-men brigades.They don’t have to show off and don’t need to prove anything to anybody. Unfortunately, it’s changing but not for reasons just cited. They too are busy texting and cell phone talking while driving just as the men are.