Thoughts from Parshas Pinchas

In this week's parsha, right after sheini, the Torah is delineating the bnei yisrael that were on the verge of entering into eretz yisrael, broken down by sheivet and family. When the Torah gets up to Dasan VaAviram, the Torah refers to them as kri'ei ha'eida. However, in the Torah it is written with a vuv not a yud, so it could/would mistakenly be read kru'ei. Interestingly, in Parshas Bamidmar, when the Torah enumerates the nesi'im, it refers to them as kru'ei ha'eida but it's spelled with a yud not a vuv, so it could/would mistakenly be read kri'ei ha'eida.
Interesting juxtaposition.
I heard a great answer from Harav Herschel Schechter. I just hope I quote it correctly.
The difference between kri'ei and kru'ei is that kri'ei implies that they were called or summoned by individual(s) and kru'ei means they were called or summoned by more, by the eida as a whole. We can perhaps understand the difference as follows. Dasan and Aviram felt of themselves that they were called by the entire congregation. The Torah records their mistaken thought, which is why it is written referring to them as kru'ei, but in reality it was their own individual calling and therefore we read it, the correct way, kri'ei.
By the nesi'im it was just the opposite. In their own minds, they were small, acting on their own, kri'ei, however, we read it correctly, kru'ei, they were acting on behalf of all of klal yisrael.
I also had the thought that by the nesi'im kru'ei was written with a yud in the middle, because yud signifies Hashem. They acted with Hashem always on their minds and at the center of all of their actions. Dasan and Aviram on the other hand, did not act in the way that Hashem would have wanted them to and therefore even though they should have had a yud in their description, the Torah omits the yud, as if to illustrate this fact to us. (This was my own thought, so feel free to rip it apart.)

It's important for us to realize our self worth, but not let it get to our heads. We need to act big but think of ourselves as small.
Good Shabbos!