Komentarz do Kapłańska 9:24

וירנו Understand this as the Targum does: and they praised God.

'ותצא אש מלפני ה, this fire emanated from the Holy of Holies, traveled via the golden altar in order to burn up the incense which was always offered before the daily communal burnt offering, as described in Yuma 33. This is also where the fire encountered the sons of Aaron beside the altar Subsequently, this fire moved to the altar in the courtyard of the Tabernacle and consumed the sacrificial meat consisting of both burnt offerings and peace-offerings.

ותצא אש מלפני ה' וגו', “fire came forth from Hashem, and consumed the burnt offering on the altar.” According to the sages who accuse the sons of Aaron Nadav and Avihu of having entered the holy precincts while in a state of inebriation, although no decree had yet been issued to forbid this, and we have a rule that no death penalty is applied unless the guilty party had first been warned that what he was about to do would carry such a penalty, one must assume that they were punished for something for which punishment had been withheld thus far, and now that the opportunity of further indictment presented itself, the penalty for prior misconduct was enacted. This answer would also explain why the method of their death was by burning, seeing that the death penalty for entering the holy precincts in a state of intoxication would be punishable by a different death penalty. Nachmanides argues that they were not punished because they were intoxicated, but hat it was their intoxication which led them to commit an error that carried the death penalty.

'ותצא אש וגו, “Heavenly fire descended,” etc.; the heavenly fire that was visible in the time of Moses did not depart from the copper altar until the days of the Temple of Solomon. It disappeared only in the days of King Menashe, who had incurred G-d’s wrath more than any King of the kingdom of Yehudah before him.