LEV230 Sexual violation, however, is objectionable on other grounds as well. First, it represents the exact opposite of the holiness that we are to aspire to achieve. Thus, in regard to sexual abuse of family members, the Torah states unequivocably, [this verse]. After a long list of such forbidden relationships, it then states that such were the abhorrent practices of the nations that occupy the Promised Land before the Israelites. The land thus became defiled and is now spewing them out – almost as if the land had an allergic reaction to toxic food. The Israelites themselves may remain in the Holy Land only if they eshew such practices and act as a holy people. Furthermore, [Leviticus 18:29–30]. Part of what it means to be a People chosen by God as a model for others, then, is that Jews must not engage in incest or sexual abuse. To do so violates the standards by which a holy people covenanted to God should live and warrants excommunication from the People Israel. Jews are expected to behave better than that. Why does the Torah speak of incest and sexual abuse as "defilement" and "abomination" in addition to its usual language of transgression? In part, it is because the Promised Land was itself seen as alive and violated by such conduct, but surely the words refer to the human beings involved too. One's bodily integrity is compromised when one is sexually abused. Sexual abuse is experienced not only as an assault on one's body but also--and usually more devastatingly – as an onslaught on one's person. One has lost one's integrity -- not only in body but in soul. One no longer feel safe in the world; at any moment, one can be invaded in the most intimate of ways. The abuse is thus indeed a defilement: What was sacred and holy before is now desecrated and broken.