The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
The first vort said by R' Frand tonight focused on Rashi's linking of the story of the Meraglim and the sin or Miriam. Rashi posits that the Meraglim were being taught a lesson - since you did not learn Miriam being punished for speaking loshon hara about Moshe, you and the Jews will be punished for your speaking loshon hara about the land of Israel.
Many meforshim have commented on this Rashi and its attempted paralleling of loshon hara about a person with evil speech about land, which is just trees and rocks.
R' Frand first quoted the Sfas Emes, who cites to a Ramabm at the end of Hilchos Tum'as Tzara'as. He observes that Miriam was Moshe's older sister and she had raised him and protected him, even when it meant her life was in danger. Miriam was not speaking evil about Moshe to damage him and he certainly would have forgiven her. In fact, in the middle of the story, the Torah remarks that Moshe was a great Anav - a statement which was more of an epitaph than a comment in the middle of a story. The Rambam explains that it is found in the middle of the story because Moshe would not have cared that this was being said. The Sfas Emes ties that into the Meraglim - they did not learn from Miriam having being punished for speaking about Moshe who was like rocks and trees. Now they would be punished for actually speaking about those items.
R' Frand also quoted the Yeraim which states that the same way that evil speech is banned when it involves a person, it also is banned when it is about his work. If a person says - the meat from that butcher is like shoe leather, its not really a reflection on the meat - its a statement about the person. In this case, the Meraglim said loshon hara about Eretz Yisrael, but that was a reflection on Hashem who was giving this land to the Jewish people. The Meraglim did not learn from the fact that Miriam was punished for speaking about Hashem's chosen leader for the Jewish people, certainly they would be punished for speaking about the land that Hashem was giving to the Jews and by speaking loshon hara about the land, they were reflecting on Hashem.
R' Frand also quoted R' Weinberger who observed that loshon hara is problematic because its reflective of one's views about something. He quoted a discussion in the Sha'arei Teshuva about two people who walked past a dead animal. One person said -how disgusting is this dead animal. The other person said - how white is this animal's teeth.
R' Frand also quoted a story from R' Levi Yitzchak M'Berditchev - he saw a man wearing tefillin while oiling his wagon wheels. A passerby said - look how awful, he's oiling the wheels while wearing tefillin. But R' Levi said - look how great, even when he is oiling the wheels, he still wears his tefillin.
R' Frand linked this thought on perspective to why the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years, corresponding to the 40 days of the Meraglim's trip. But they only said loshon hara on one day? The answer is that they spent the entire 40 days thinking and observing evil about the land of Israel. This 40 days of evil thought caused 40 years of punishment.
R' Frand said a final vort where he asked - why was the punishment more severe for the Meraglim than the Egel? The Egel was Avodah Zara and in contrast, the Jews had regret and prayed for forgiveness for the sin of the Meraglim!
R' Frand quoted the Ralbag on the Torah who states that the teshuva could not help because this was a missed opportunity and while teshuva can expiate a sin, it cannot solve or fix a missed opportunity. They felt regret and sought forgiveness, but the window had closed and they could not enter Israel at this juncture. This is also why the Ma'pilim were punished for trying to enter the land - their intentions were good, but this was not the time.
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