ABSTRACT
The earliest description of a Jewish or Israelite judicial system is the biblical account of Moses’ appointment of judges, in line with Jethro’s advice: “Set these over them as chiefs (sarim) of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens” (Exod. 18:21).1 If these instructions were followed verbatim, in a community numbering 600,000 men, “all the judges2 of Israel would number seventy-eight thousand six hundred,” according to the Sages’ preferred mode of making the calculation.3 Apparently
* David Henshke teaches in the Department of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, where he heads the Naftal Centre for Sudy and Dissemination of the Oral Law. He is also editor of Sidra: A Journal for the Study of Rabbinic Literature.
