Rabbi Joshua ben Levi רבי יהושע בן לוי
sat with the sick whom everyone avoided; entered the Garden of Eden alive
Ketubot relates that he would sit and study together with those afflicted with ra'atan—a disease everyone else kept away from—and explained it by the verse about Torah as "a loving doe."
He is also the hero of the story of the Angel of Death. He had been promised a sight of his place in the Garden of Eden before he died; he took the angel's knife, leapt over the wall—and stayed inside alive. The angel demanded the knife back; a voice from above decided the case in Rabbi Joshua's favour.
His best-known conversation is in Sanhedrin 98a. He met the Messiah at the gates of Rome, among the sufferers: he was changing his bandages one at a time, so as to be ready at any moment. To the question "when will you come, master?" the answer was: today. Rabbi Joshua told Elijah and complained that he had been deceived. Elijah explained: he spoke in the words of the psalm—"today, if you hearken to His voice."
That sentence became the heart of his legacy: the coming is not fixed to a date; it is made to depend on what people do.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Ketubot 77b — the sufferers of ra'atan; the Angel of Death and entering Eden alive
- Sanhedrin 98a — the Messiah at the gates of Rome and “today, if you hearken to His voice”
Basis: Talmud and midrash.