신명기 9:6의 Musar

This may be the reason the Torah describes these people as ערב רב. The word suggests that "sparks" of purity and sanctity were מעורבות, "mixed," within their personalities. Moses wanted to capitalise on those positive traits within these people and therefore he accepted them wholeheartedly. G–d, however, realised that these people had not yet achieved the spiritual plateau necessary to prepare them for Judaism. This is why He had not wanted to take these people out of Egypt at the time of the Exodus. There are actually two different kinds of fellow travellers; this is why the Torah calls this group ערב רב, "the large mixture." In the Zohar on Parshat Ki Tetze we also find a reference to ערב קטן, "a small mixture." When the former term is used it indicates that the spiritual point of departure of the people concerned is the רב, the Divine inspiration called דעת עליון, "senior" or "major." The numerical value of the expression ערב רב is the same as that of דעת, i.e. 474. It was these people who committed the sins, who impaired the harmony in Heaven, who were stigmatised as the עם קשה עורף, "the stiffnecked people" in פרשת עקב (Deut. 9,6). The meaning of אחד, One, is explained there.