Why were Yehoshua bin Nun and Kalev ben Yefuneh the only ones to tear their garments upon hearing the evil report of the spies? Moshe and Aharon simply fell with their faces to the ground. They did not tear their garments. Can it be that Moshe and Aharon, the nation’s symbols of devotion, did not feel the pain as intensely as Yehoshua and Kalev did, who went so far as to tear their garments? 

     R’ Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik zt"l answers that since Yehoshua and Kalev were personally involved in exploring the land, it is certain that Hashem’s protective hand had saved them from the initiatives of those who were intent on disparaging the land. Yehoshua and Kalev were afraid, however, that some of the spies’ poison had attached itself to them, and that perhaps the sliver of an evil thought had slipped into their hearts. Hence they made every effort to rid themselves of this doubt. They used all their strength to protest in every way - shouting, praying, even tearing their garments - to prevent Bnei Yisroel from thinking that they had somehow participated in the conspiracy of the spies. 

     Such was not the case with Moshe and Aharon, who had not been involved in scouting the land. Hence, they did not need such demonstrations to distance themselves from the evil of the spies. For them it was enough to fall with their faces to the ground in order to join Yehoshua and Kalev. 

     Among the sages of Jerusalem, there was a Tzaddik who took every opportunity to reprimand the deeds of a certain group of wicked men, constantly warning his followers not to be swayed by their ideas or deeds. When asked why he constantly stressed this point, since it seemed enough just to keep away, he replied: “Among the laws pertaining to the salting of meat, there is a principle which states that as long as meat is rejecting the blood within it, it does not absorb the blood of other meat. Therefore as long as I’m rejecting their ideas and deeds, I won’t absorb anything from them.”