Presidential inauguration: Ivanka Trump had to seek permission to use car on Friday due to Orthodox Jewish beliefs
Orthodox Judaism prohibits the use of motor vehicles on Friday evenings
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Your support makes all the difference.Ivanka Trump had to seek special permission to travel back from her father’s presidential inauguration because of strict laws governing activity on the Jewish Sabbath.
Orthodox Judaism prohibits the use of a motor vehicle on Friday evenings and on the Saturday celebration day.
So the President-elect’s daughter had to get permission from a rabbi to travel home from Mr Trump’s big day at the White House in a car.
Marc Zell, the chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and an outspoken supporter Mr Trump, said Ms Trump had received rabbinic permission.
The Israeli-American lawyer told the Kol Barama radio station, in Israel, that the 35-year-old mother-of-three is being permitted to travel back by car to protect her and husband Jared Kushner’s safety.
Jews using a car while working as a surgeon or soldier are usually given the same permission, under the rule of pikuach nefesh, or protection of life, which overrides other commandments in the Torah.
Businesswoman Ms Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism in July 2009, and took the Hebrew name ‘Yael’, shortly before her wedding.
“We observe the Sabbath,” Ms Trump told Vogue magazine in 2015, adding that the weekly religious ritual was also another excuse to cook.
“From Friday to Saturday we don’t do anything but hang out with one another," she said. "We don’t make phone calls. It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected. To really sign off."
She added that it allowed her daughter Arabella to "know that she has me, undivided, one day a week."
She said: “We don’t do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family.”
Orthodox Judaism usually prohibits all motor vehicle use, including travel to and from synagogues, on the Sabbath. Conservative Judaism is slightly more lax, while Reform Jews continue to drive on the Sabbath.
The inauguration consists of a wreath-laying ceremony and concert today, the swearing-in ceremony at 11.30am (4.30pm GMT) tomorrow, followed by a parade at 3pm (8pm GMT).
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