The chief rabbi in the city of Holon, Avraham Yosef, has issued a religious decree banning women from driving — again bringing extremists in both Islam and Judaism to a mutually agreeable position with regard to women’s rights.
Yosef insisted that, absent an emergency, women should not drive because it undermines modesty and chastity. Yosef is a Sephardi representative on the Chief Rabbinate Council (Moetzet Harabbanut Harashit).
It appears that another Rabbi, Shmuel Halevi, issued a similar ban saying that suggestive looking women were causing auto accidents.
New York city authorities yielded to demands from Hasidic religious leaders to remove bike lanes to discourage women from biking through their areas.
Previously, Yosef issued an order that Israeli judges and senior figures in the government could not join in a prayer quorum. Because they did not accept the supremacy of the Torah in disputes, he insisted that “[w]e must ignore their existence, as if they were just air.”
He further explained “The judge himself, even if he knows how to pray very well, even if he knows how to do everything excellently – from the moment he was appointed judge he made himself unworthy of joining a quorum . . .Even if he promises that all his rulings will be in keeping with the Shulchan Aruch, he has still lifted his hand against the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu and is not worthy of joining anything holy.”
Source: Malaysian News and Reddit
Jonathan Turley
Blouise,
Sorry. 🙂
I was looking for the Bugs Bunny fantasy from Wayne’s World on YouTube to embed. No luck, but those who are familiar with the movie will understand the fantasy relationship I intended to present.
BBB,
Blouise must have Felix Unger clones in mind.
*****
Buckeye,
When a modest woman drives a car–it’s known as high-speed chaste.
BBB,
Sush … We’re talking religion here, it’s my fantasy and you have no right to interject reality!
SB: wouldn’t
If only this damn computer would start to say what I meant for it to say.
“My high-priestess Elaine came to me in a dream last night and told me I no longer should wash a dish, clean a toilet, or sort a load of wash. All would be done for me by the male population.”
Have you seen the living conditions of the average male?
As they say; I would start counting my blessings too soon. 🙂
Now that I think of it, how can driving a car be other than chaste, unless there’s some new gadget which allows …
Never mind.
Mike S.
Exactly!
My high-priestess Elaine came to me in a dream last night and told me I no longer should wash a dish, clean a toilet, or sort a load of wash. All would be done for me by the male population.
I am blessed.
“By the way I think that in all religions this extremism is based on a morbid fear of women and a personal shame at ones own sexuality.” -Mike Spindell
==============
I agree.
Elaine M.,
“BTW, I believe doing housework and laundry undermines my modesty and chastity.”
TMI 🙂 LOL
Among the most distressing trends in Judaism is that those considered to be Orthodox have become much more extreme in the last 50 years. I think this is the trend also in Christianity and Islam that is a reflection of discomfit with the rapid changes in humanity brought about by the technological revolution. I become as angry at extremist Jews as I do with
all fundamentalist extremists, only it hurts more when it is ones co-religionists. The saddest part is that in all faiths these are the pronouncements of a small minority, whose fanaticism gives them more power than they deserve in the context of general religious belief. By the way I think that in all religions this extremism is based on a morbid fear of women and a personal shame at ones own sexuality.
Elaine M.,
The movie was one that I saw over 40 years ago — I was pretty young at the time. I remember thinking about the movie when Atwood’s book was first published. (Thanks.)
From the article: “He has justified his decree by saying that driving for women does not reflect modesty or chastity, especially in cities inhabited by religious people.”
Did Yosef explain how driving for women does not reflect modesty or chastity? I’d say it’s an excuse so men can exert more control over women.
BTW, I believe doing housework and laundry undermines my modesty and chastity.
😉
anon nurse,
Did you ever read Margaret Atwood’s book “The Handmaid’s Tale?” They made a movie of it–but I don’t think it’s the one you’re thinking of.
“Driving Miss Delilah”
All I can is is Why!, Why!, Why!…?!:
“Shmuel Halevi, issued a similar ban saying that suggestive looking women were causing auto accidents.”
Like eniobob, I can’t argue with that.
I asked the local solicitors office to provide with pictures of what they had found to be the leading causes of traffic accidents. They wouldn’t send individual images (they said the Governor keeps them in his office), but one of my friends agreed to use his cellphone camera to show me what they had.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4y32Zy_xoc&fs=1&hl=en_US]
Regarding the movie mentioned my previous comment:
Carb-lover that I am, I remember big vats of macaroni and cheese — the mac’ and cheese was used to “fatten up” the pregnant women.
I remember seeing a very old sci-fi movie in which women were institutionalized and used as breeders… (Name, anyone?)
I’m just waiting for the extremists of every stripe to take the inevitable outcome of continual derision of women and stop sleeping with them all together.
That would certainly be a step in the direction of making the world a better place and I’m sure the women won’t mind not being treated like baby factories by men with their heads firmly stuck in the 10th Century . . . in addition to any other inappropriate places they may have their heads stuck.
“saying that suggestive looking women were causing auto accidents.”
I have seen that happen.:=)