Q&A: Hitchhiking
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Hitchhiking
Question
Hello Rabbi,
As is common for yeshiva students, I often end up hitchhiking. As a result, a question comes up regarding the morality of “pressure hitchhiking” (that is, when the light is red, walking between the cars and signaling with your finger).
Also, the question comes up whether it is moral to plead with your hands for rides when there is no real reason to do so, but only a desire to get home.
Thank you very much.
Answer
Pressure hitchhiking is a bit annoying, but I don’t see a moral problem with it. At most, they’ll tell you no. Pleading as you described is a kind of deception, and therefore it is proper to avoid it. Both because it is false, and because drivers will lose trust if there are too many people pleading, and that harms others.
From my experience as a hitchhiker (including a survey I once conducted among the drivers who picked me up under pressure), sometimes it is actually even easier for the driver. Instead of his having to signal, cut across a lane and a half, and stop, with all that and maybe for nothing (because maybe he’s not going somewhere that helps you), he simply stays where he is and doesn’t have to trouble himself in the slightest for you (aside from a quick exchange).
The common claims about the “discomfort” and the fact that you are “forcing him to take you” strike me as a kind of “we compel him until he says, ‘I want to,'” since he wants to be like all decent people who help someone if they are able to, etc’.