Commento su Numeri 17:2

ואת האש AND THE FIRE — that is in the censers (not, as might be assumed, that of the burning materials — the שרפה just mentioned).

SPEAK UNTO ELEAZAR THE SON OF AARON THE PRIEST, THAT HE TAKE UP THE CENSERS OUT OF THE BURNING, AND SCATTER THOU THE FIRE YONDER; FOR THEY ARE BECOME HOLY. “The censers [have become holy]. And it is prohibited to have any benefit from them, since they had already made them ‘vessels of service.’” This is Rashi’s language. But I do not know the reason for this prohibition, since it was “strange incense” [which was not part of the daily commandment] that they offered, and if a non-priest makes a vessel of service in order to bring an offering in it outside [the prescribed place in the Tabernacle or Sanctuary], that vessel does not become sanctified! However, it is possible to say that since they did so at the command of Moses, the vessels did become holy, because they dedicated them to G-d, thinking that He would answer them through the [Heavenly] fire and that these censers would remain forever in the Tent of Meeting as [sacred] vessels of service. The correct interpretation, [however,], appears to me to be that Scripture is saying, Because they were offered before the Eternal, therefore they are hallowed, and they shall be for a sign unto the children of Israel,¹⁶⁹Verse 3. meaning: “I [the Eternal],¹⁶⁹Verse 3. have sanctified them [so that they may not be used], from the moment that they were offered before Me, in order that they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.”

ואת האש זרה הלאה, not on the place where the remains of burned offerings were stacked on the altar. The reason was that it was incense that should never have been allowed into the precincts of the Tabernacle.