The Prophet Elijah, who never died but was taken up to Heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), was known to appear to the righteous in moments of great need. One such visit was to Rabbi <strong>Joshua ben Levi</strong>, and what Elijah showed him that day left the sage trembling with wonder.
Elijah took Rabbi Joshua on a journey—not through the streets of earthly Jerusalem, but through a vision of the Jerusalem that was yet to come. The heavenly Jerusalem, the city that God would one day lower from the skies to replace the ruined Temple and the broken walls.
What Rabbi Joshua saw defied description. The portals of the future Jerusalem were not made of stone or cedar or even gold. They were fashioned from single carbuncles—enormous precious stones that glowed with their own inner light, each one large enough to serve as a city gate. The radiance that poured through these gates was so intense that it cast no shadows. The streets themselves seemed to be made of light.
The Midrash HaGadol on Exodus records that Rabbi Joshua wept when the vision ended. He had seen the splendor that awaited Israel at the end of days, and returning to the dusty, occupied, diminished Jerusalem of his own time was almost unbearable.
One of Rabbi Joshua's students later mocked the idea. "Gates made of jewels? A single carbuncle that large? Impossible." But soon afterward, the student was at sea and glimpsed, through a break in the clouds, something shining on the distant horizon—enormous jeweled gates blazing with light. He returned home shaken and told Rabbi Joshua what he had seen.
"So you needed to see it with your own eyes?" the sage replied. "If you had simply believed, you would have been spared the voyage." Faith in the future Jerusalem, the tale teaches, requires no proof. The portals are already being prepared. One day, every eye will see them.