Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Sforno · Torah
Sforno on Exodus 18:21/ספורנו על שמות י״ח:כ״א
אוְאַתָּה תֶחֱזֶה מִכָּל הָעָם. תִּבְרוֹר וְתִמְנֶה, כִּי בְּאֵלֶּה הַשְּׁלוֹשָׁה עִנְיָנִים צָרִיךְ שֶׁתִּהְיֶה אַתָּה בְּעַצְמְךָ, וְלֹא יַסְפִּיק זוּלָתְךָ, אֲבָל בְּעִנְיְנֵי פִּסְקֵי דִינִים פְּרָטִיִּים יַסְפִּיקוּ שָׂרֵי אֲלָפִים שָׂרֵי מֵאוֹת כוּ'. כִּי אָמְנָם כְּשֶׁיִּהְיוּ אַרְבַּע מַדְרֵגוֹת זוֹ לְמַעְלָה מִזּוֹ, הִנֵּה יִשְׁפּוֹט הַקָּטָן רִאשׁוֹנָה, וְהַצּוֹעֵק עַל פְּסַק דִּינוֹ יִצְעַק אֶל הַגָּדוֹל מִמֶּנּוּ, וּמִן הַשֵּׁנִי אֶל הַשְּׁלִישִׁי וּמִן הַשְּׁלִישִׁי אֶל הָרְבִיעִי, וּבְכֵן יִהְיוּ מְעַטִּים הַבָּאִים לְפָנֶיךָ לַדִּין.
1ואתה תחזה מכל העם, select, and then appoint. The only area in which you alone are competent is the choosing of suitably qualified helpers, in accordance with the guidelines Yitro outlined. When it came to handing down judicial decisions, however, there would be 78600 appointees of four different levels of competence who would deal with all but the most perplexing problems without having to come to Moses for approval of their rulings. Initially a problem would be submitted to one of the 60000 men appointed as “chief” of ten. If such a man did not know the answer he would refer it to one of the 12000 chiefs of 50, and so on in an ascending order. The different levels of judges would in effect act as appellate judges, reviewing if judgments made by the lower ranking judges and appealed should be changed.