Comentario citado sobre Josué 24:17

Their reasoning was correct but it was not their prerogative to make such a ruling. Rav Saadyah Gaon writes concerning this matter that Nadav and Avihu erred when they thought that our verse means that man-made fire was to be placed on the altar “from the outside.” The word ונתנו in our verse is equivalent to ובערו, “they shall burn.” The word ונתנו is used in that sense in Isaiah 37,19: ונתון את אלוהיהם באש, “they have committed their gods to the flames.” Rav Saadyah uses this example of the error committed by Nadav and Avihu to stress how careful one has to be when trying to derive halachic rulings from the written text of the Torah. If people of the stature of Nadav and Avihu could make such a fatal error in understanding the text of the Torah, how much more likely is it that scholars of lesser distinction can make such errors! Had they troubled themselves to confirm with their teachers Moses or Aaron that their interpretation was correct they would not have brought death upon themselves. The mishap which resulted from the error of the sons of Aaron accounts for the fact that Jewish scholars are so careful in repeating the lessons they have learned from their teachers by using the same words. This principle has been made into a rule in Ediyot 1,3: “a person is obligated to repeat what his Rabbi said by using the same words.” If such care is in place when one merely repeats the words of one’s teacher, how much more so is it incumbent upon each one of us not to misquote a single word from the written Torah! If someone nevertheless changes the wording of the Torah the prophet Jeremiah 23,36 said concerning such people that “they pervert the words of the living G’d.”
Concerning this whole subject Jeremiah 23,33-36 writes: “when this people, or a prophet or a priest, asks you: ‘what is the message of the Lord?’ You shall answer them “what is the message? I will cast you off — declares the Lord. As for the prophet or priest or layman who shall say ‘the message of the Lord,’ I shall punish that person and his house. You shall speak to each other, everyone to his fellow, ‘what has the Lord answered? Or “what has the Lord spoken?’ But do not mention ‘the message’ of the Lord anymore.” Does a man regard his own word as “a message?” According to Rav Saadyah Gaon the meaning of Jeremiah is that none of his listeners are allowed to put their own interpretation on the prophet’s words or to paraphrase his words. The only person allowed to interpret the word of G’d is the prophet to whom it was addressed. If the people would take it upon themselves to re-interpret G’d’s message they would become guilty of perverting G’d’s words.
In verse 36 the prophet Jeremiah used three words extolling G’d; he spoke of Him as “the living G’d,” as “the Lord G’d of Hosts,” and as “our G’d.” The first description of G’d by the prophet as “the living G’d” was a reference to G’d revealing Himself at Mount Sinai. At that time the people had heard His voice, proof that He was alive. Moses had challenged the people in Deut. 4,33 when he asked them if ever a nation had become privy to such an experience as hearing the living G’d? When Jeremiah referred to G’d as “the Lord G’d of Hosts,” he had in mind the second pillar of Judaism, the belief in prophets to whom G’d had transmitted specific messages (compare Zecharyah 7,12). Jeremiah’s referring to G’d also as “our G’d,” אלו-הינו, was a reference to the G’d of the patriarchs. The expression had been used in Joshua 24,17 where Joshua in his parting address to the Jewish people reminds them of their history and implores them to never forget how that attribute of G’d took them out of Egypt and looked after them every step of the way. The terms employed by Jeremiah for describing G’d are proof of how important it is to use the same terms that one’s teacher had used. Rav Saadyah Gaon understands the word ונתנו in our verse as equivalent to the Arabic for “they shall burn,” just as in Leviticus 6,5: “and Aaron shall kindle wood on it every morning.”

והיו לאותות, “they will serve as (backgrounds to) miracles; such as when their orbits were arrested temporarily at the command of Joshua (Joshua 24,17) when he reminded the people of that. On an individual basis, G-d performed such a miracle for King Chizkiyahu to confirm that he had been granted an additional 15 years of life. (Kings II 20,911) A different way of understanding these words: the constellation of the stars will serve astrologers as indications when foretelling certain events in the future.