why Yehoshua and Kaleiv's insight was greater even than that of Moshe

After hearing the report of the spies, Moshe and Aharon reacted with nefilas apayim  (14:5):

 וַיִּפֹּ֥ל משֶׁ֛ה וְאַֽהֲרֹ֖ן עַל־פְּנֵיהֶ֑ם לִפְנֵ֕י כָּל־קְהַ֥ל עֲדַ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל:

 

which usually connoted tefilah.

 

Yehoshua and Kaleiv, on the other hand, reacted by rending their clothes:

 

וִֽיהוֹשֻׁ֣עַ בִּן־נ֗וּן וְכָלֵב֙ בֶּן־יְפֻנֶּ֔ה מִן־הַתָּרִ֖ים אֶת־הָאָ֑רֶץ קָֽרְע֖וּ בִּגְדֵיהֶֽם:

 

which is essentially an act of yei'ush, of abandoning hope.  You can't tear kri'ah in aveilus before the person is dead.  So long as their is any sign of life, there is no kri'ah.

 

In this case, Kaleiv and Yehoshua got it right.  When it came to the sin of the spies, there was no hope of forgiveness.  That entire generation was doomed to wander in the wilderness until every last person died. 

 

R' Shlomo Kluger in Imrei Shefer asks: How is it that Kaleiv and Yehoshua were able to intuit what Moshe and Aharon could not? 

 

He offers a number of answers to this question. 

 

The gemara (Kesubos 75) relates:

 

לציון יאמר איש ואיש יולד בה והוא יכוננה עליון' (תהלים פז, ה), אמר רבי מיישא בר בריה דר' יהושע בן לוי, אחד הנולד בה ואחד המצפה לראותה, אמר אביי וחד מינייהו עדיף כתרי מינן, אמר רבא וחד מינן כי סליק להתם עדיף כתרי מינייהו, דהא רבי ירמיה דכי הוה הכא לא הוה ידע מאי קאמרי רבנן, כי סליק להתם קרי לן בבלאי טפשאי

 

R' Yirmiyah was not an accomplished scholar, but when he went to learn in Eretz Yisrael and then came back to Bavel, he far surpassed his colleagues.  "Avira d'Eretz Yisrael machkim."

 

Those high school kids who left in September for a year of yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael are now returning home.  Some of them at least are not the same people that they were when they left.  There learning is a different learning, their interests are different, they suddenly are focused on more important things that the nonsense of high school.  Sure, they are a year older, a year more mature, they have had a full year away from their parents to grow up.  But that's not the full story.  The difference between who they were in Sept and who they are in June is because they had a year of "avira d'Eretz Yisrael."  The kedushas ha'aretz has made an imprint.

 

Says R' Shlomo Kluger: Yehoshua and Kaleiv had spent 40 days in Eretz Yisrael.  Moshe and Aharon never stepped foot there.  Therefore, Yehoshua and Kaleiv's insight surpassed even that of Moshe and Aharon.