GEN1335 [One of the features of the ethic of Torah that makes it transformative and uniquely sustainable over time … is] a strange feature of the book of Genesis. We normally think of Judaism as Abrahamic monotheism, and monotheism itself as a rejection of and protest against the polytheism of the ancient world. Yet Genesis contains not a single polemic against idolatry. Other than an obscure reference to Rachel stealing her father’s terafim,   “household gods” or “fetishes” [this verse], there is not even one mention of it. Yet there is no doubt that the story of Genesis from chapter twelve to the end is about a single and singular family that lives differently from the nations and cultures that surrounded. Of what does this difference consist? There is a connecting theme. Whenever a member of the covenantal family leaves the matrix of the family, he or she encounters a world of sexual anomie.  Three times Abraham and Isaac are forced to leave home because of famine and on each occasion feel themselves to be in danger of their lives. They will be killed so that their wives can be taken into the royal harem Genesis 12,20,26. When two strangers, who turn out to be angels, visit Lot in Sodom, the people of the town surround Lot’s house demanding that he bring them out for the purpose of homosexual rape. When Dina goes out to visit Shechem, she is abducted and raped by the local Prince. When Joseph, in Egypt, is left alone with his master’s wife, she attempts to seduce him and when he resists has him imprisoned on a false charge of rape. Even the members of Abraham’s family themselves become corrupted when they live among the people. Lot’s daughters get their father drunk and have incestuous relationship with him. Judah, who has left his brothers to live among the Canaanites, feels no qualms about having sex with a woman he takes to be a prostitute. A truly remarkable idea is being formulated here: that there is a connection between idolatry and sexual lawlessness.   SACKS xxvii [Continued at [[GEN969]] Genesis 18:19 instruct SACKS xxvii-viii]