And all of you approached me and said, "Let us send men ahead of us so that they will search out the land for us and bring us back word." (1:22)
Rashi on the verse: And you approached me all of you: in a state of disorder. Rashi continues further on (Devorim 5:20-21) it says when Hashem was ready to give the Torah, "You approached me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said, Behold Hashem has shown us His glory and His greatness." That was proper, with Derech Eretz, young people respecting their elders, sending these before them. Here, you approached me all of you, in a state of disorder, the young pushing aside their elders, the elders pushing aside their heads.
Hence, we see that the spies lacked Derech Eretz, and didn’t approach Hashem in an appropriate manner. However, later before receiving the Torah, the approaching Hashem was proper with Derech Eretz. Based on this Rashi, we can understand a difficulty in Parshas Shlach that Moshe prayed to Hashem that Yehoshua should not go with the advice of the spies, and this is difficult to understand, how did Moshe know that the spies would return from their mission to survey the land and go against the will of Hashem, that he should have to pray for Yehoshua?
There is a powerful insight from the heilige Chidushei Hari'm of Gur, who asks: It is written in Chazal that Hashem went to all seventy nations and asked if they wanted to receive the Holy Torah, and everyone had a different reason as to why they did not want to receive the Torah. The Chidushei Hari'm asks, if so why don’t we find that Hashem approached the Yidden to ask if they wanted to receive the Torah? And he answers that Hashem gave the Jews the commandment of restriction (Shemos 19:12) and he restricted the people around him, saying, "And you shall set boundaries for the people around, saying, Beware of ascending the mountain or touching its edge; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death." Rashi explains: Set boundaries for them as a sign that they should not come nearer to the mountain than the boundary. Explains the Chidushei Harim that Hashem wanted to test the Yidden with the proper behavior in Derech Eretz. Since the nature of a person is not to stand in a border, and if the Yidden would fulfill the mitzvah of the restriction and stand in a definite border with Derech Eretz, they deserve to receive the Torah. When Hashem saw the Yidden behave properly and withstood the temptation and stayed restricted in the border, they received the Torah.
According to this, it is now understood that Moshe saw that the behavior of spies was in a state of disorder, without Derech Eeretz, this was the sign to Moshe that good would not come out, and therefore he prayed for Yehoshua. Moshe was aware that the Yidden who acted in a proper manner, came out good, and they received the Torah.
(Sefer Ahalei Shem, Rabbi Shem Klinberg swwhv of Zlushitz)
According to this, we can explain the Chazal “Derech Eretz Kadma Letorah” - Derech Eretz precedes Torah. This means the act of behaving properly with Derech Eretz by the Yidden, therefore they received the Torah. This can be added as an insight what the Gemarra Avodah Zara 2a says: In the future, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will bring a Torah scroll and place it in His lap and say: Anyone who engaged in its study should come and take his reward.
Immediately, the nations of the world will gather together and come intermingled with each other, as it is stated: “The Holy One, Blessed be He, will say to them: Do not enter before Me intermingled; rather, let each and every nation enter. This is powerful as Hashem knew that the gentiles would not act proper with Derech Eretz, therefore, they didn’t deserve the Torah!
(Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
