The prophet Elijah — who never died but ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire — appeared to Rabbi <strong>Joshua ben Levi</strong>, one of the greatest sages of the third century, and offered him something no living person had ever seen: a vision of the future Jerusalem.
Not the Jerusalem of rubble and Roman occupation. Not the city whose Temple lay in ashes. Elijah showed him the Jerusalem that would exist at the end of days — the city rebuilt by God Himself, the city that the prophets had promised would descend from heaven.
And what Rabbi Joshua saw took his breath away. The gates and portals of that future Jerusalem were made entirely of carbuncles — enormous precious stones that blazed with their own light. Not torches, not oil lamps, not sunlight. The gates themselves radiated a brilliance so intense that the whole city was illuminated from within. No external source of light was needed. The walls glowed. The doorways burned with gemfire.
This vision corresponds to the prophecy in (Isaiah 54:12): "I will make your windows of rubies, your gates of carbuncles, and all your walls of precious stones." What Isaiah described in words, Elijah showed to Rabbi Joshua in full, blazing detail.
The Talmudic tradition records that Rabbi Joshua ben Levi had an unusually close relationship with Elijah, meeting him regularly and receiving revelations that other sages could only dream about. This particular vision — the carbuncle gates of the future Jerusalem — became a beloved image in Jewish eschatology, a promise that the city would one day outshine everything the ancient world had built.