R Elchanan somehow thinks Miriam (sister of Moshe Rabbeinu) was an apikores

The rambam writes at the end of hilchos tumas tzaraas that miriam's mistake that caused her to say lashon hara about moshe was that she "equated him with other neviim".  in truth, the rambam isnt saying a chiddush - this is the clear implication of miriam's statement "harak ach bimoshe diber hashem halo gam banu diber" - we are all neviim just like him.

r elchanan (cited by the sefer hamafteach, kovetz hearos biurei ha-agados siman 7 or so), asks, isnt it one of the 13 ikkarim that moshe rabbeinu was on a fundamentally higher plane than all the other neviim?  was miriam an apikores by denying this?

r elchanan answers that unil this ikkar was revealed through hashem's subsequent response to miriam (lo ken avdi moshe, bichol beisi neeman hu, etc.)  miriam wasnt responsible for not knowing it.

with all due respect, this is preposterous.  consider the implications:  the rambam writes that the source for the ikkar of schar vi-onesh is the dialogue between moshe and hashem right after cheit ha-egel.  moshe tells hashem, "dont punish bnei yisrael, or else you have to kill me".  g-d responds, "thats not the way my ikkar of schar vi-onesh works.  i punish those who sin, and dont punish those who dont."  was moshe unaware of this ikkar until g-d informed him of it right now.  moshe rabbeinu was an apikores bishogeg until now??  hard to swallow, seeing as he got the entirety of the torah (which presumably includes the 13 ikkarim) at har sinai.

furthermore, the ikkar of the superiority of nevuas moshe is divided into four parts (see the rambam seventh ikkar or so) and two of them are proved with pesukim from well before miriam's incident!  so anyways, r elchanan fails to explain how miriam was unaware of the superiority of moshe rabbeinu.

rather, the answer is (for both the dialogue between moshe and hashem and miriam's lashon hara) that everyone knew the ikkarim all along.  moshe / miriam just didnt see the implications to their particular cases of the ikkar.  this seems to be pashut pshat - not a big chiddush.

the rambam quotes these stories as proof for his ikkarim because when hashem explains moshe and miriam's mistakes, he "chazzers" the ikkar for them in its entirety so that we will have it written in the torah.

anyone care to defend r elchanan?