Or HaChaim on Exodus 18:21/אור החיים על שמות י״ח:כ״א

1 ואתה תחזה מכל העם אנשי חיל "and you shall seek out from amongst all the people able men, etc." This does not mean that the people should appoint the judges, but that Moses should look for suitable candidates. The Torah also hints that inasmuch as Moses would do the appointing, he could view himself as the judge seeing his appointees were his delegates.

2מכל העם, "from amongst all the people, etc." This means that although Moses might find candidates acceptable to him he should not appoint them until they also proved acceptable to all the people and the people asked for these men to be appointed as judges.

3אנשי חיל, יראי אלוקים, וגו׳ "able and G'd-fearing men, etc." Yitro spoke of four different qualifications corresponding to the four levels of judges he had suggested, i.e. chiefs of tens, chiefs of fifties, chiefs of hundreds and chiefs of thousands. The expression אנשי חיל is an all encompassing term, i.e. people who possess all the necessary qualifications mentioned to the fullest extent. Such people would be appointed as chiefs of thousands. In order to qualify as a chief of hundreds, Yitro demanded that the judges possess fear of the Lord; the reason that he mentioned יראי אלוקים (instead of יראי השם, for instance) was that their fear of the Lord need comprise only fear of punishment if they trespassed the Lord's commandments. This qualification was adequate to qualify a person to be a chief of hundreds. Although fear of the Lord in His capacity as the tetragram might be perceived as a higher qualification, in this instance it was not. Fear of the Lord as awe of the majesty represented by G'd includes awareness of all of G'd's attributes including the fact that He may be forgiving, display patience, etc. These latter considerations would make a judge think that if he committed an error G'd would be indulgent with him. It was important to Yitro that the judge would be constantly aware of the penalty he would face if he perverted justice. Yitro's point is best illustrated in Chagigah 4 where the prophet Samuel who had been raised from the dead by the witch employed by King Saul was visibly frightened (Samuel 28,15). If Samuel had reason to be concerned, how much more must ordinary individuals be afraid of G'd's justice. The Talmud reports that Samuel did not make an appearance until Moses himself accompanied him as a protector. The chiefs of thousands also possessed this quality of fear of punishment; in their case they possessed an additional qualification which the chiefs of hundreds did not need to possess. Concerning the qualifications needed in order to be appointed as one of the chiefs of fifties, Yitro demanded that these judges be known as truthful. Although these people did not possess the level of fear of punishment which characterised their colleagues the chiefs of hundreds, their reputation as truthful men sufficed to make them eligible as chiefs of fifties. Finally, in order to qualify as a chief of tens it was only necessary to have a reputation that one spurned ill-gotten gains. Yitro was careful to describe these people as "hating" ill gotten gains. It was not enough that they could curb their desire for such gains; they had to be people who never allowed themselves to lust after such gains. These last-mentioned qualifications were, of course, presumed to be possessed also by the chiefs of fifties and the chiefs of hundreds. If Yitro had meant for these various qualifications he mentioned to be be cumulative, i.e. that even a person who was a chief of tens had to possess all of these attributes, the attributes should have been linked to each other by the conjunctive letter ו i.e. אנשי חיל ויראי אלוקים.

4It is obvious that if Moses were able to find a sufficient number of people possessing the highest of these attributes this would be wonderful; as it turned out, the Torah reports that Moses was indeed able to find close to 80,000 people who could qualify for the title of אנשי חיל. This also proves that Yitro had spoken of these qualifications in a descending order. Had Yitro intended for these qualifications to be cumulative, the Torah would have had to report that Moses found people who were men of truth, G'd-fearing, hated ill gotten gains, etc. We must certainly not assume that the reason the Torah does not mention Moses as having selected men of truth, G'd-fearing men, etc. was because he could not find such people. The only reason that Yitro had mentioned a variety of qualifications in a descending order was that he was afraid Moses might not be able to find a sufficient number of people with the highest attribute of all.

5I have given some thought as to the reason why Yitro merited that this whole portion bears his name. While it is true that inasmuch as Yitro paid honour to Moses the servant of G'd, G'd repaid him by honouring him, G'd could have found many other ways of compensating Yitro for his good deeds. Why did the Torah have to create the impression that if it had not been for Yitro a priest from Midian, Moses together with G'd's chosen people would not have known how to administer the Israelites' affairs?

6I believe the reason for all this is that G'd wanted to show the Jewish people already at that time and for all future generations that there are great and intelligent men to be found amongst the nations of the world. Yitro was an example of an enlightened Gentile who demonstrated this point beyond question. It is to teach us that if G'd chose the Jewish people as His people this is not because they possess superior intellectual qualities. G'd chose the Jewish people as a reward for the loyalty the patriarchs had shown Him and as an act of love towards this people. There is a discussion in Zevachim 116 as to whether Yitro arrived in the desert prior to the revelation at Mount Sinai or after. According to the view that he arrived prior to the revelation, the point we just made that G'd did not choose the Jewish people because of their intellectual superiority is reinforced. Although the Gentiles number more wise men than the Jews G'd still decided to make us His pilot project. This imposes an additional duty on us to praise Him for having chosen us as an act of love. Even according to the opinion that Yitro arrived in the desert only after מתן תורה, the reason that the Torah reports his arrival before it reports the revelation indicates that the Torah wishes us to learn this lesson.