“He overturned those cities, and the entire plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the vegetation of the earth” (Genesis 19:25). “He overturned those cities” – Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman: These five cities were situated on a single rock, and the angel extended his hand and overturned them. That is what is written: “He extends his hand to the flinty rock [ḥalamish]; he overturns mountains from the root” (Job 28:9).
Two amora’im disagreed: One said: With one-fifth [ḥomesh] of the hand, and one said: With one-fifth of the little finger. Rabbi Yehoshua said: “And the vegetation of the earth” – even the plants that were in the earth were stricken. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: To this day, if a person collects rain from the airspace of Sodom and places it in a furrow, it will not facilitate growth.