[Avodah] RYBS on Avraham in contrast to the preceding doros

[Yitzchak Schaffer]

Here is a central idea in Judaism: kedushah attracts. This was perhaps 
the greatest discovery made by Abraham. The generation of the flood 
thought that beauty is fascinating and that it is man's duty to respond 
quickly to the aesthetic challenge, to succumb to the beautiful and 
pleasant. The generation of the dispersion thought that power is the 
idea that overwhelms man; technological achievement takes man prisoner, 
making him worship the genius who made this kind of achievement 
possible. Abraham proclaimed to the world that kedushah is the great 
attractive force.

Abraham's Journey, p.62