Comentário sobre Números 14:1

כל העדה ALL THE CONGREGATION — This refers to the Sanhedrin (Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 12; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 4:13 and Note thereon).

AND THE PEOPLE WEPT THAT NIGHT. The meaning thereof is that the spies went into the [people’s] tents towards evening, after they left Moses, and in the morning they [the people] rose early and they all murmured against Moses and against Aaron [as related in Verse 2]. And likewise Moses said,⁷⁸Deuteronomy 1:27. and ye murmured in your tents, for it was in their tents that they spoke words of a murmurer.⁷⁹Proverbs 18:8.
Now our Rabbis have said:⁸⁰Taanith 29a. [“That day was the ninth of Ab. Said the Holy One, blessed be He:] ‘They wept for no good reason; therefore I will establish [that day as one for] weeping throughout their generations’.”⁸¹The First and Second Temples were destroyed on the ninth of Ab, the anniversary of the night when the people wept without cause. Many subsequent misfortunes also befell the Jewish people on that day. But I do not know from what allusion in this section [of the Torah] the Rabbis deduced this interpretation. It is, however, a clearly-expressed verse [in the Book of Psalms]: Moreover, they scorned the desirable Land, they believed not His word. And they murmured in their tents, they hearkened not unto the voice of the Eternal. Therefore He swore concerning them, that He would overthrow them in the wilderness, and that He would cast out their seed among the nations, and scatter them in the lands.⁸²Psalms 106:24-27. Perhaps this [interpretation of the Rabbis concerning the destruction of the two Temples on that night of weeping] is derived from the verse which states, But your little ones, that ye said would be a prey,⁸³Further, Verse 31. which means: “But as for your little ones — it will be as you said, they will be a prey when the time of their visitation⁸⁴Jeremiah 8:12. comes, for I shall visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.⁸⁵Verse 18 here. — them will I bring in now so that they will just know the Land,⁸³Further, Verse 31. but they will not possess it [uninterruptedly] for all time.” Scripture only refers to such matters by means of allusion, for it does not want to decree evil categorically, unless it is a rebuke predicated on a condition.

ותשא כל העדה…ויבכו העם, And the whole community raised their voice and the people wept. The Torah adds the word "and the people," and did not content itself with reporting those who raised their voices. This is to tell us that it was not the whole community which wept on that night. The entire nation raised their voice (against Caleb, etc.) after the spies had succeeded in inspiring fear in them, but only part of the people actually wept.

Kap. 14. V. 1. ותשא וגו׳, d. h. ותשא כל העדה את קולם ויתנו את קולם sie brachen zuerst in ein großes Geschrei aus und ließen dann ihrer jammernden Stimme freien Lauf. — בלילה ההוא, nach Taanit 29 a war dies die Nacht des neunten Ab, jenes Tages, an welchem sich auch in der Folgezeit die trübsten Katastrophen des nationalen Untergangs vollzogen. Es dürfte dies das ההוא erklären, womit die Nacht dem Merken für die Zukunft empfohlen sein kann.

The entire community arose. According to the Sages, each one of the spies threw himself down in his tent and wept, and his entire family gathered around him, while he cried, “Woe unto you, etc.” Then the entire tribe gathered, etc. Immediately after this the spies were silent to hide the fact that they had caused the crying. What remained was, “and the people wept”.

Another method of interpreting this verse is based on Sotah 35 and Taanit 29. According to the Talmud, G'd told the people that seeing they had wept without good reason on that night (the 9th of Av), G'd would give them adequate reason in the future to weep on that date (the annivesary of the destruction of the Holy Temple). The words: "the entire community raised its voice," is an allusion to the unwarranted raising of their collective voice which eventually resulted in the people who lived during the destruction of the Temple weeping over its loss. Had the Torah simply written: "the people wept on that night," we would have understood this as referring to the people who had raised their voice at the beginning of the verse.