Parshas Pinchos

Rashi (27;16) quotes a Medrish that Moshe davened that his kids should take over his leadership of Klal Yisroel after he was nifter. Hashem answered that Yehoshuah Ben Nun would take over, in the zechus that he served Moshe and never left his side.
Were Moshes children worthy to lead Klal Yisroel? Did they have the qualities of a true leader? If yes why was it that Moshes prayers weren’t answered and if not why did Moshe want them to be the leaders?
The Hafloh answers, (R’ Shimon Schwab writes similarly) in truth no one was worthy to take the place of Moshe. It was impossible for anyone to lead Klal Yisroel the way Moshe did. Only Moshe spoke to Hashem and received the Torah straight from Hashem. Moshe in his great humility felt that he wasn’t either deserving of the position and felt that he got it as a gift from Hashem. His prayer was that being that no one was capable and deserving of being the leader of this great nation and who ever whould lead would be getting an extra dose of seatah dishmayah he wanted his sons to get that madriegah of closeness to Hashem. To which Hashem told him that even though no one was at the level Moshe was, Yehoshua Ben Nun was the only one that was worthy of getting the gift of greatness and thus be worthy of leading Klal Yisroel.
The Medrash states (quoted partially by Rashi 27;20) that when Yehoshuah took over, the zekainem said “Moshes face was like the sun (he was the source of light) and Yehoshuah’s face was like the moon (reflecting the light of the sun), woe is the embarrassment”. The basic understanding is that they were sad about the fact of how low they fell with the death of Moshe. The Baal HaIkrim explains that the zekainim realized that Yehoshuah wasn’t either worthy of leading, but was given that zechus in Klal Yisroel’s honor. At that point they realized that they too could’ve been zoche to such holiness had they just tried a little harder and served Moshe as faithfully as Yehoshuah did- and that was embarrassing to themselves.