QUESTION:

If the generation of the wilderness was so great, why was there a revolt in the times of the spies?

ANSWER:

You should understand, that there are certain principles of correct behavior that everybody should cling to at all times. One of these principles is pikuach nefesh. We have to save lives, Jewish lives are too precious to squander. Hashem told Moshe to send meraglim to spy out the land. So everybody understood that the purpose was to see the feasibility of coming into the land. Otherwise why send meraglim? It's a waste of time if no matter what the report will be they have to march ahead, so why should he send spies? So the answer was, they understood that if it's going to be unfavorable report, they have to find ways and means of dealing with the situation; it's common sense.

Now they understood that eventually Hakadosh Baruch Hu would give them the land, but to come now and make a frontal attack on a country that was so fortified would be suicide. Now, the sin of the meraglim was that they gave advice to the people. They shouldn't have given any advice; that wasn't their job. They should have reported and they should have stepped back and kept quiet. But they said, that it's too dangerous; they weren't expected to say that.

At that time, there was an overdose of caution. Pikuach nefesh certainly, but the people have to know, if Moshe Rabeinu who is the oheiv Yisroel, and he heard the report, and he understood the pros and cons, and he is the shliach Hashem, and he's telling them b'shem Hashem, good, we received the report, we'll have to proceed with caution... we'll have to plan the assault in a way that's safest, it shouldn't be a loss of life, but we'll have to go ahead anyhow, they should have overcome their fears.

But because the meraglim were men of great influence, and injected a note of terror into the people, it became to a large part of the people a panic. Now don't think everybody panicked, Kalev didn't panic, Yehosua didn't panic, you can be sure Betzalel didn't panic, Miriam didn't panic, there were a lot of good Jews who were willing to follow Moshe Rabeinu. But there were some people who said that they didn't want to go at this time because of the report of the meraglim, and that was the sin of the meraglim.

Now the truth is, had it been in our generation it wouldn't have been a sin at all; that's a principle of the Kuzari. The sin is made great in accordance with the greatness of the people. For them it was considered a sin. For us, if we would refuse to go to Eretz Yisroel if it would be occupied by a dense population of well-armed people, nothing wrong. But since there was a Moshe Rabeinu, it was al pi Hashem, and they were a great generation that saw nissim v'niflaos in yetzias Mitzrayim, so as far as their greatness was concerned it was considered an error, and they were blamed for it.

Good Shabbos To All