Kosher spies vs. Hoshea's name change.

B"H

Bamidbar (Numbers) Ch.13:3 reads:
כלם אנשים ראשי בני ישראל המה

Loosely translated:
There were all אנשים (pron.: Anashim = men), the heads of the Jewish people.

Rashi interprets "Anashim" in 13:3 to mean that at the time of calling there were all kosher righteous individuals, i.e., proper upstanding leaders of the community and of their respective tribes.

Interestingly in 13:16 we find:
ויקרא משה להושע בן-נון יהושע

Loosely translated:
And Moshe renamed Hoshea son of Nun to Yehoshuah (Joshua)

Rashi (on 13:16) states that Moshe added the leading י to Hoshea's name (thus resulting in Yehoshua) so that "Hashem will protect Joshua from the conspiracy of those wicked spies" (referring to the 10 spies are are destined to produce an evil report about the land of Israel.)

So, the obvious question is this: if these 10 men were indeed wicked, why did Moshe call them "Anashim" (=righteous, proper and upstanding leaders of their respective tribes.) Why indeed did he choose them to lead the mission? If on the other hand they were indeed kosher "Anashim", why did Moshe have to add a letter to Hoshea's name to draw down divine protection from these Anashim?

What were they? Anashim or wicked?
At the literal level, we must conclude that they were indeed "Anashim" as the Torah states, which means that they were kosher at the time the were chosen for the mission. So, the question falls back onto Moshe as to his decision to add a letter to a perfectly valid name.

An explanation, but first some background:
We find that there are two types of righteous individuals, as it states in Tehilim (Psalms) 93:13:
צדיק כתמר יפרח כארז בלבנון ישגה

Loosely translated:
A righteous person will grow like a palm-tree, [and] like a Lebanon-ceder tree he shell become great.

What's the differences between a palm-tree and a ceder? A ceder tree is much bigger, wider, stronger, taller and resistant to the elements. It's a really massive tree, especially the Lebanese variety. A palm-tree, on the other hand is smaller, slimmer and shorter and not as resistant. Though a palm-tree posses one very important quality that a ceder lacks: the ability to bear fruit! Not only does a palm-tree produces dates, but anyone who eats those dates gains sustenances, vitality and strength.

This is likened to two types of Tzakdikim (=righteous individuals):
There are those that are like a ceder: they are massive! the devote 100% of themselves to study of Torah and spiritual pursuit. They are constantly in heavenly involvement and absolutly nothing else. Their entire existence evolves around the axis of Torah.

On the other side of the spectrum there are those Tzakdikim that that are like a palm-tree: their not devoting 100% of their time to Torah study. They are not constantly involved with heaven. In fact they devote some of their time, effort, money and abilities to help other people. They bear fruits -- they're actions and interactions with other individuals -- in the way of spiritual and material help are indeed the "fruits" they produce. The palm-tree tzadikim reach out to the simple folk. Those who consume their fruits indeed gain both physical and spiritual sustenance, vitality and strength.

Though this outreach may come at the expense of these palm-tree tzadikim, because they certainly don't have all the Torah study that the ceder tzadikim have.

Back to the problem at hand:
Moshe sees in the 10 other spies that they are indeed kosher, as Rashi explains, and that they're indeed tzadikim of the ceder variety: they much rather stay in the desert and live a supernatural life where food is miraculously provided daily, the clothing grows with the person wearing them, the clouds of glory provide divine protection and a person is free to pursuit spirituality to their heart's content without interference from the physical realm. On the other hand the Land of Israel represents, to them, a spiritual decent because: a person would have to be involved in manual labor to work the land, go to the marketplace to buy and sell, cook, put food on the table, clean after the meal, change diapers, take the donkey in for an oil-change, take the kids to sand-hockey and be otherwise involved in earthy matters, leaving less time for spiritual pursuits.

Moshe wants Hoshea to become a palm-tree tzadik, on the other hand. Moshe reasons that it's not enough to be all spiritual and lead a completely spiritual life, for if that was the case, the Jewish nation would have not received physical bodies and a Torah that affects (and indeed utilizes and refines) the physical world. For Torah to be truly applied in one's day-to-day life, one must infuse the day-to-day mundane life with Torah -- that is the true purpose of receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai.

Retrospectively we see that Moshe was correct: the 10 spies were punished severely for trying to hijack the divine plan (i.e., to stay in the desert and live an exclusively spiritual life) while Yehoshuah (nee: Hoshea) is chosen by the Almighty as Moshe's replacement and indeed the person who will eventually lead the Jewish people into the Land of Israel. There, in the Land of Israel, under Yehoshua's leadership the Divine Will and Divine Purpose of giving of the Torah (and indeed creation as a whole) can be fulfilled, specifically by affecting, utilizing and refining the mundane with the light of Torah.