Yisro 18:21 Yisro’s Seven criteria to be a judge. Yisro’s seven criteria for being a judge, aren’t all listed explicitly here (in our Parsha); we need the help of the Sifri in Devarim and the commentaries there to complete the list (and it gets complicated). This class includes various difficulties (and opinions) in identifying the seven groups, and we attempt to explain each one of them. There are several opinions, but the basic ones are: 1) אנשי חיל According to RaShI: independently wealthy and in no need of others patronage. 2) יראי אלוקים According to RaShI: 3) אנשי אמת According to RaShI: 4) שונאי בצע According to RaShI: one who hates money; we discussed it in psychological terms: he hates what money does (in changing) to people. 5) חכמים According to RaShI: solving problems when they came up; Chassidus sees a Chacham as an intuitive and creative man. 5) נבונים According to RaShI: if no problems arose they went looking for problems to solve; Chassidus sees a Mavin as a thorough analytical man. 7) ידועים this means that they are known to the community which allowed determining their integrity more substantially.
