"You're a murderer! Get out of here!": 6 Quotes from Jewish Sages about Road Safety

1. The Ramban quotes the words of the Rambam: "The great rabbi [the Rambam] wrote in his book 'Guide for the Perplexed' that most evils that befall individuals come from their lack of knowledge, and from our foolishness we cry out and complain about the evils that we bring upon ourselves by our own will, as King Shlomo said in Mishlei, 'The folly of man perverts his way, and his heart rages against Hashem,' and he elaborated greatly on this... and Hashem will not create miracles and wonders in the world to help fools overcome their deficient character traits."

2. The author of the Sefer Hachinuch explains a fundamental principle about safeguarding our physical well-being: "Among the roots of this commandment, although Hashem watches over the details of people's lives and knows all their actions and everything that happens to them, good or bad – are by His decree and command according to their merit or liability, as our Sages of blessed memory said, 'A person does not hurt his finger below unless it is proclaimed above' – nevertheless, a person must guard himself from common occurrences in the world. For Hashem created His world and built it on the foundational pillars of nature, and decreed that fire should burn and water should extinguish flame, and similarly nature dictates that if a large stone falls on a person's head – it will crush his brain, or if a person falls from a high roof to the ground – he will die."

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"And He, blessed be He, endowed human bodies and breathed into them the soul of life – with knowledge, to protect the body from all harm... and after Hashem subjugated the human body to nature, as His wisdom required... He commanded him to guard against accidents, for nature, which is placed in His hand, will have its effect upon him if he does not protect himself from it."

The Sefer Hachinuch concludes: "And therefore the Torah commands us to guard our dwellings and our places, lest death occur through our negligence, and we should not endanger our lives by relying on miracles." (Mitzvah 546).

3. The late Rabbi Shmuel Wosner characterizes people who drive at excessive speeds as either potential murderers or potentially suicidal. It should be qualified that his comments were not part of an inspirational talk about character development - they were part of a halachic responsa: "It is absolutely obvious that included in these laws in our times are those who drive cars at high speeds, and everyone wants to get ahead of others, and it is already known how many have lost their lives because of this, may Hashem save us. This is a complete danger. This and similar behaviors are either potentially murder or suicidal." (Responsa Shevet HaLevi 6:112, Laws of Protecting Life).

4. The late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv ruled that a person who drives on the road without a driver's license is stealing from the public, since the roads belong to the public, and law enforcement authorities have public jurisdiction to decide who can use the roads. ("Netivot Chaim", Gate 82, Note 112)

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5. One of Rabbi Elyashiv's close students related: "With my own eyes I saw Rabbi Elyashiv of blessed memory get into a car to travel a distance of only a few dozen meters, and immediately upon entering the vehicle he fastened his seatbelt, even though the entire journey lasted only about thirty seconds."

6. Several years ago, a man drove against the flow of traffic for a few seconds to get into a nearby parking lot. A police officer stopped him and revoked his driver's license on the spot. The man requested to be tried in court to try to save his license. Ahead of the trial, he went to the late Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky (the Steipler Gaon) and asked for a blessing to succeed in court. The Steipler began to shout at him. "You're a murderer!!! Anyone who disregards traffic laws is a murderer!!! If there were a Sanhedrin (Jewish court) today, they would give you a harsh punishment!!! Get out of here and don't ask me for blessings for things like this!!! You deserve to have your license revoked!!!"