[Abraham’s] father and mother, along with the rest of the population, were all idol worshippers. He would worship with them, but he would question and wonder, until he found the true and just path from his own correct understanding. And he knew that there is only one God… And he knew that the entire world was mistaken, and that which lead them astray was that they worshipped the stars and the idols.
– Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations 1:1-3
…וַיָּבֹא֙ הַפָּלִ֔יט וַיַּגֵּ֖ד לְאַבְרָ֣ם הָעִבְרִ֑י
בראשית י״ד:יג
A fugitive brought the news to Abram the Hebrewֿ…
– Genesis 14:13
One has to adopt the virtue of Abraham of whom the Torah testified that he was העברי, HaIvri (Genesis 14,13) “on the other side,” in a moral class all by himself, he did not run with the pack.
– Or HaChaim on Deuteronomy 1:1:10
כִּֽי־מֵרֹ֤אשׁ צֻרִים֙ אֶרְאֶ֔נּוּ וּמִגְּבָע֖וֹת אֲשׁוּרֶ֑נּוּ הֶן־עָם֙ לְבָדָ֣ד יִשְׁכֹּ֔ן וּבַגּוֹיִ֖ם לֹ֥א יִתְחַשָּֽׁב׃
במדבר כ״ג
As I see them from the mountain tops, Gaze on them from the heights, There is a people that dwells apart, Not reckoned among the nations,
– Numbers 23:9
The uniqueness of the Jewish people consists both of its sets of laws, the Torah, and of its religion, faith in the invisible Creator not in any intermediaries…when all the other idol-worshipping nations will perish this people alone will survive; this is the deeper meaning of the words: “they will dwell in solitude.”
– Rabbeinu Bachya on Numbers 23:9