[Avodah] The Difference Between Rachamim and Rachmonis

[Yitzchok Levine]

RSRH gives a most interesting explanation of the 
difference between Rachamim and Rachmonis. YL

Bereshis 43: 14 May the All-sufficing God grant 
you compassion before the man, so that he may let 
your other brother and Binyamin go. As for me, if 
I must be bereaved of my children, then I will be bereaved.

Rachamim denotes the attribute of God’s love for His creatures, which is
most general and will never be lost. The attribute of Rachamim should also
be the guiding principle in human relations. Rachamim  is love of family, love
of parents for their children, love of children for one another because
of the one Rechem from which they came forth.

People tend to confuse Rachamim  with the popular expression Rachmonis and
take the attribute of Rachamim to be pity. Pity, however, is of a much lower
level than that of true Rachamim.

Which is rarer, which is nobler: sharing in others’ pain or sharing
in others’ joy? Very few people do not feel pain at the suffering of their
fellow men. But this is certain: not all those who today share in a poor
man’s pain will rejoice to the same degree if overnight he becomes rich,
and tomorrow passes them in the street, riding with his family in an
elegant carriage.

Rachamim, the attribute by which our nation is distinguished (Yevamos
79a), means more than pity. Rachamim stems from Rechem, which denotes the
most intense and self-sacrificing investment of energy by one being for
the formation and emergence of another being; the commitment of all
of one’s blood and energy for the sake of another being’s formation
and completion. Rechem, the womb, is the hearth of the deepest devotion.
Afterward, too, when the new being has been completed, the Rechem —
this deepest devotion — effects not only sympathy with the baby’s crying
but even more intimate joy with its smiling. A smile of a baby on
the lap of its mother makes up for years of worry and sleepless nights.
 From Rechem derives the attribute of Rachamim. This attribute not only suffers
when the other suffers, but knows no rest until it sees him happy.

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