How many judges does it take to decide a monetary dispute in Jewish law? The Mekhilta traces the answer to a single passage in (Exodus 22:7-8), where the word "elohim" — meaning judge or judges — appears three times in rapid succession.
Rabbi Yoshiyah reads each mention as adding one judge to the required panel. The first verse says "the master of the house shall draw near to elohim" — that is one judge. The next verse says "until elohim shall come the matter of both" — that is two judges. And then "whom elohim shall incriminate" — that is three judges.
From this triple repetition, the rabbis derived one of the foundational rules of the Jewish court system: monetary litigations are judged by a panel of three. Not one judge sitting alone, which might lead to bias. Not a large assembly, which would be unwieldy for routine financial disputes. Three judges — enough for deliberation, enough for a majority decision, and firmly grounded in the Torah's own language.
The word "elohim" here is itself remarkable. The same word used for God throughout the Torah is used for human judges. This is not a coincidence. The rabbis understood that a judge who renders a fair verdict participates in divine justice. The judge's bench is not merely an administrative function. It is a sacred responsibility, and the Torah signals this by sharing God's own name with those who sit in judgment.
Rabbi Yoshiyah's method — counting each appearance of a key word to establish a legal requirement — is a classic example of how the rabbis built an entire judicial system from the Torah's precise and deliberate language.