Dear Rabbi,
I remember asking a question about driving for women but I cannot find the answer anymore. When I use the link received by email, it just does not work anymore. Do you know where it is ?
Sincerely.
Answer:
Unfortunately, a number of recent posts were erased by a bug, and we were unable to retrieve them.
The answer to the question is that there is no problem for women to take driving lessons and to drive. It is preferable that driving lessons should be from a female instructor.
Best wishes.
Sources:
Shut Shevet HaLevi (4:1) has written that women should not drive. He writes that driving goes against the principle of “kol kevodah bas melech penimah,” draws attention to the woman driver, and is inappropriate for women.
However, this ruling has not been accepted by the vast majority of Orthodox communities.
Moreover, it stands to reason that on the contrary, driving is more modest than walking in the street or using public transportation, by which a woman is more exposed to the public than in the privacy of her own car.
Perhaps some decades ago, when women’s driving was a rarity, this would draw attention to the lady driver, and be considered immodest. Today, women’s driving is evidently prevalent, and there is therefore nothing immodest about it.
As for “kol kevodah bas melech penima,” the situation today is that women do not in general sit at home, but rather go out to work, shopping, to bring the children to and from school, and so on, so that there does not appear to be any special infringement of this principle by driving.
The common custom is for women to drive (including many rebbetzins), and many authorities have noted that there is no problem in doing so. This is mentioned by Rabbi Dovid Lau in the name of Rabbi Elyashiv zt”l, by Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef zt”l as cited in Ki Va Mo’ed on Pesach, by Rabbi Binyanim Zilber (Az Nidberu 13:80), and others.
