The following is from R’ Shimon Schwab’s zt”l sefer Mayan Beis HaShoeva
(Parshas Shelach)
????? ??? ?????, ?????; ??????, ??? ???? ????–???? ????
Rashi quotes the sifri which says that this was a gnai (embarrassment, a negative) for Klal Yisroel. They kept one Shabbos in the midbar, then this occurs on the second Shabbos.
R’ Schwab asks if this is truly a gnai, then why does the Torah still choose to refer to them as ??? ?????, let them simply be refered to as ???.
When we analyze the situation we see that only 1 person out of 600,000 (more including the women and children) committed chillul Shabbos. So what is the gnai here?
Since Bnei Yisroel were on such a high madrega (as evident from the fact that they are being refered to here as ??? ?????) therefore one person violating the Shabbos is as if the entire Klal did not keep Shabbos.
It is comparable to a new white garment. Even if a tiny drop of something like mustard drips onto it, it is as if the entire garment is stained, even though the stain would not be recognized on any other type of garment.
Liekwise this action of the one who went out to collect the wood on Shabbos is a stain on all of klal yisroel simply because they were on the laufty madrega of ??? ?????.