Comentario sobre Números 3:4

על פני אהרן [AND ELEAZAR AND ITHAMAR MINISTERED] BEFORE THE FACE OF AARON — i.e. during his lifetime (cf. Rashi on Genesis 11:28).

AND ELEAZAR AND ITHAMAR MINISTERED ‘AL PNEI’ AARON THEIR FATHER - “that is, during the lifetime [of Aaron their father].” This is the language of Rashi. Now [Rashi] does not mean to say that they ministered during their father’s lifetime, for all priests of the family of Aaron may minister during their fathers’ lifetime [so why should Scripture single out Eleazar and Ithamar in this respect?] Rather, [the verse says that they were anointed during Aaron’s lifetime], because He had stated [that Aaron’s sons were] the priests that were anointed,¹⁴⁹Verse 3. meaning that they too were like the High Priests in that they were anointed during Aaron’s lifetime, just as he [Aaron] was anointed, a procedure which was not applicable in later generations.¹⁵⁰In later generations ordinary priests did not have to be anointed ; they automatically entered into the priesthood by descent. Only High Priests were anointed. Scripture thus alludes here to the unusual fact that Eleazar and Ithamar were anointed at this time, although they were ordinary priests, in the same way that Aaron the High Priest was anointed, a procedure which was not followed in later generations, see Vol. III, p. 117.
But the correct interpretation is that the expression al pnei refers to the beginning [of the verse, and the order of the phrases is to be understood as if inverted, as follows]: “And Nadab and Abihu died before the Eternal ‘al pnei’ (in the presence of) Aaron their father, when they offered strange fire.”¹⁵¹The order of the phrases according to the Hebrew text is as follows: And Nadab and Abihu died before the Eternal when they offered strange fire before the Eternal, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office in the presence of Aaron their father. And so indeed it is stated in the Book of Chronicles: And Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children, and Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest’s office.¹⁵²I Chronicles 24:2. The meaning of [the expression] before the Eternal is that they died a miraculous death which came [directly] from Him. Similarly it is stated in the case of the spies that they died by the plague before the Eternal.¹⁵³Further. 14:37.

בהקריבם אש זרה, this was the only blemish they had been guilty of.