The Jews were punished for believin the spies, the meraglim by staying in the desert forty years. What was so terrible about staying there; didn’t they have all they needed? They had mon to eat, the be’er to drink of, clouds protecting them on every side. What was the big punishment?
One suggestion was that a person needs meaning in life. We cannot vacation forever. Getting to Eretz Yisrael was the meaning they were aching for. (They probably appreciated Eretz Yisrael lots more when they waited for it that long, but that’s another topic.) So their punishment was that they had to wait from reaching their tachlis.
The gemarah tells us that the Jews in the desert were in nidui, excomunication, and we actually learn the halachos of nidui from them. What is the source for this? Rashi says it is mentioned right here, in the forty year midbar sentence. How? Perhaps this forty-year decree was Hashem saying to the Jewish people “I am very disappointed in you, and I will not have anything to do with you for the next forty years”. So the real punishment was to be cut off from Hashem for forty years; staying in the midbar was only a result! Imagine how we could have grown in those formative forty years had we the direct stewardship of Hashem!
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