Renowned haredi rabbi prohibits women from driving due to immodesty

Amnon Yitzhak claims that only “fourth or fifth” rate rabbis would permit women to drive.

By JEREMY SHARON
Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak 370 (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak 370
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The renowned Haredi rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, famous for his Jewish outreach activities, has ruled that it is forbidden for women to drive according to Jewish law on the ground that it is immodest, the haredi website Kikar Hashabbat reported.
Speaking in Kiryat Shmuel near Haifa last week, Yitzhak said that Torah sages did not approve of women driving at all and cited a ruling of Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, one of the most respected haredi rabbis alive today as having also prohibited women from driving.
“What is a car, it’s a replacement of a wagon and there was never such a thing as a female wagon driver,” said Yitzhak.
“It’s not modest for a woman to be a driver,” said the rabbi, claiming that only “fourth or fifth” rate rabbis would permit such a thing.
There have been other rabbis who have ruled that women should not drive cars.
Rabbi Avraham Yosef, son of former Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, once ruled that women should only learn to drive if it was “absolutely necessary” and not as a luxury.
And as Yitzhak himself mentioned, Rabbi Wosner ruled that women learning to drive causes immorality since the woman exposes herself in markets and streets for all to see which causes others to stumble and err.