The Meraglim Did Not do Teshuva
Rav Bunim of Peshischa zy”a asks why Klal Yisroel was forgiven for the sin of the eigel hazahav, even though we don’t find that they did teshuva, but they were not forgiven for the sin of the meraglim, even though they did do teshuva.
He answers that a person’s main teshuva is when he loses all hope and he doesn’t think he could ever atone for his sin. When a person becomes brokenhearted to this extent, he fully regrets what he did and accepts to only obey Hashem in the future. Thus, his actions show that he is sincere, and this teshuva is accepted.
After the sin of the eigel, Klal Yisroel did not know that teshuva would help, as this was the first sin they committed since they received the Torah. Therefore, they fully regrated their actions and had sincere remorse. After the sin of the meraglim, however, they already knew that teshuva worked, so they thought they could simply do teshuva and move on. Thus, they did not have full remorse. This was proven when the very next day they decided to climb the mountain, despite Moshe telling them that Hashem did not want them to. This was a sign that they had not done full teshuva and had not accepted to only do good from now on.
