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The Talmud, in discussing the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, makes two statements that are noteworthy because of their implication when viewed from the standpoint of modern psycho-analytic theory. In Tractate Sotah, 11b, we find that Rav Evyarah taught 'because of the virtuous women of that generation Israel was delivered from Egypt'. In Midrash Rabbah, Numbers, Chapter 3, we read 'because the Israelites kept away from prostitutes God delivered them from Egypt'.
The departure of the Israelites from Egypt may be regarded as a step forward in their racial and cultural evolution. From a race of slaves they became a race of freemen. That the Rabbis 'explained' this amelioration of the racial status of the Jews on the basis of their chastity will immediately call to mind Freud's views on the relation of sexual taboo to the rise of human culture.
Freud maintains that with the development of the taboos surrounding the sexual, and especially incestuous, desires of primitive man, the energy generated by the sexual instinct was deflected from its immediate goal (sublimation), giving rise to the multitude of human