Sodom, Gomorrah & Chernobyl on Israeli Stamps

This coming Sabbath, we will read in the Torah (Deuteronomy 29:23) a very harsh description of what will happen in the Promised Land, if the Jewish People do not keep the Covenant they made/signed with G-d in the Plains of Moab (AKA the Trans-Jordan, or, the East Bank of the Jordan River).
Moses tells them that the "whole land will be (or, "is" in this translation which I don't understand) brimstone, salt and burning... like the overthrow of Sodom & Gomorrah..."

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld mentioned in our Yeshivah's Rashi class that a modern-day example of such an event is what took place 38 years ago (April 26^th, 1986) in Chernobyl (then USSR, now in the Ukraine), when there was a leak/explosion in nuclear reactor #4. Until now, according to experts, nothing that grows in the Exclusion Zone (10-20 Miles Radius) is safe for human consumption!

You all know that my first love (in collecting) was for stamps from Israel, and I have about 75% of the approximate 5,500 stamps issued by Israel. So, this post shows only stamps from Israel depicting the Two ideas mentioned above.

First, even though Sodom & Gomorrah were, in fact, overthrown as described in Genesis 19:12-26 – scientists have discovered that the salts & chemicals that are found in that “entire Plain” (Genesis 19:25) are very good for fertilization & cosmetics (and many other uses)!!!

Tonight is my father's 77^th birthday, may this Torah study be for elevation of his Neshama (AKA soul), and since he worked for many years for the Dead Sea Works – it is very appropriate for what he did in his professional life.

So, even though most of the area is desolate and nothing grows, as promised in this week's Torah Portion – the Dead Sea Works is appreciated & celebrated as one of Israel's most successful lines of export!

Second, as we mentioned the Chernobyl disaster, many countries issued stamps on the 10^th, 20^th, 25^th, 30^th and 35^th anniversaries – most of them concentrating on the efforts of the UN and several countries to save the Children of Chernobyl. As many of the children are Jewish – Chabbad Lubavitch had an airlift operation to bring many of them to Israel, where they grew up in a healthy & safe (and also religious, just as an added benefit...) environment! One of them now lives here, in Fredericton, with his family, and I feel blessed to have taught his son for his Bar Mitzvah which was at the Kotel (Western Wall) Seven years ago! We got to participate, as we were in Israel for a very special celebration of my Abba's 70^th Birthday!

Israel issued the stamp on the far left on December 23^rd, 1997 to commemorate this non-profit organization's operation to bring as many Jewish children from the affected disaster area to Israel as they could.

The stamp on the far right was issued in February of 1979 as part of a series of "Technological Achievements in Israel", and shows the development of chemical fertilizers. The 2 stamps in the middle were issued in July of 1965, dedicated to the success of the Dead Sea Works, and show the advances made in salt storage {not only table salt (Sodium Chloride) but many different salt compounds}; and evaporators of the Dead Sea waters which occupy most of the area that in the times of our Forefather Abraham is described as very fertile: "the Plain of Jordan... like the garden of Y-H-W-H (Hashem/Lord/G-d), like the land of Egypt" (Genesis 13:10).