Uncannily timed to coincide with the June chants of "no more pencils - no more books" which resound throughout America, this week's medrash describes the Jews departing from Har Sinai as "as children happily bolting forth from school". Their eagerness to be free from the sobriety and responsibility which attended at Har Sinai apparently caused one of the great lapses of communal consciousness and public decorum of the desert generation. According to the Ramban's reading, their flight was born of the fear that should they remain, they might hear more laws, more restrictions, more uncompromising goals. Additionally Ramban suggests that they were duly punished and their otherwise immediate entry into Eretz Yisrael was delayed.
Thus the seemingly simple phrase, (10, 33) "And they traveled away from the Mountain of Hashem [on] a three day journey" is in fact a strong censure which, as Rashi explains, has to be set apart with bracket like inverted "nuns" from the ensuing stories of complaints and woe. How is this seen in the pasuk? Perhaps because of the striking contrast to a similar passage recording the Jews departure from the shores of Yam Suf. There we read, (Shemos 15,22) "And Moshe caused the Jews to travel..." prompting Rashi to comment that Moshe Rabeinu had to force the Jews to leave the booty of the Yam Suf behind them.
Why did Chazal compare the singular generation of the desert - the "dor de'ah" - to school children? Were they not the ones who reached the madrega that earned them the unquestionable revelation of Yam suf and Sinai and the daily mon and guiding pillars of fire and clouds? Moreover, why should delaying entry into Israel be a suitable way of rebuking a generation that accepted its all-encompassing obligations with enviable dedication that left it totally overwhelmed?
HaRav Simcha Zisel Broide tz"l, the Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron is quoted as commenting that the medrash is pointing out that the Jews did not appreciate the sublime significance of the mountain of Sinai - that is the very physical Mount Sinai. I believe that the Chevron Rosh Yeshiva was suggesting the following interpretation of the analogy in the medrash.
The immature student flees the hallways of the yeshiva because he sees them as the place of ongoing demands, and relentless and inflexible adherence to institutionalized structure. Not so the mature or graduating student, who honestly acknowledges the skills and information he gained and the attitudes distilled in the very same study hall. For him, the desks, walls and floors will remind him of maturing experiences, though sometimes painful, and moments of great insight. The accomplished student will leave the beis hamedrash very slowly and his appreciation will bring him back frequently.
Members of a generation who spirited away from the mountain, who did not want to take note of every rock, nook and peak and associate it with the soulful changes that G-d's greatest revelation wrought, were not yet ready to fully value the Land of Israel. The fear that a generation may experience the great miracles of the conquest of Yericho and not see them as part of the very terrain of Israel delayed their entry. The privilege of inheriting Eretz Yisrael, it would seem, is contingent in part on our full appreciation of every aspect of the Land and its contribution to each generation of Jews who were privileged to walk through it or even yearn for it.