mercy

Distinctions

rachum (רחום), rachamim (רחמים)

Both rachum and chanun are of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy that Hashem revealed to Moshe as he prayed for the Jewish People after the golden calf, attributes that are key to how Hashem runs the world and to how a man attains atonement; the column notes that although we generally refrain from adjectives in describing Hashem, these are presented as such. Rabbeinu Bachaya (on Shemos) writes that rachum and chanun are Hashem's way of forgiving sinners who ask forgiveness, repent and undergo some affliction, but he does not there explain how the two differ; elsewhere he writes that they are actually one and the same attribute, His heeding prayer in time of need even before that person has repented, and finds support in the fact that Tanach often uses them together, sometimes in one order and sometimes in the other. The column's own analysis, by way of an analogy from the relationship between a victim and one with the power to save him: rachum focuses on the savior, who sees the victim's downtrodden state, empathizes with him, and ultimately decides to save; he acts not necessarily for the victim's sake but, in a sense, for his own. Bechor-Shor: rachum is for the poor, mercy that lifts one out of a dismal situation. Gloss to Tosafos (Rosh Hashanah 17b): rachamim is Hashem withholding a calamity before it falls. Rabbi Elazar Rokeach of Worms: rachum acts beyond the letter of the law (others explain the opposite: rachum only for one who asks for mercy). Rabbeinu Bachaya again: rachamim is Hashem's general oversight of the world. Rabbi Avraham bar Chaim Ibn Ramoch, who lived in Spain at the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition (to Tehillim 86:16, 112:4, 145:8): rachum saves from any form of suffering. Malbim: rachmanus applies only to an intelligent being; one pities a child or an animal differently from an adult.

chanun (חנון), chein (חן)

The column: chanun focuses on the victim, who finds favor (chein) in the savior's eyes (with Hashem, through prayer) or is simply granted (choneh) a reprieve. Rashi (to Devarim 3:23): chanun recalls matnas chinam, a free gift, relief not necessarily deserved. Bechor-Shor: chanun is for the rich, a present regardless of need. Gloss to Tosafos: chanun is a special reprieve granted in the midst of distress. Rokeach: chanun uses the system of justice to heed another's call for clemency (others explain the opposite: chanun is even for one who does not request mercy). Rabbeinu Bachaya: chanun is His particular oversight of each element of creation. Ibn Ramoch: chanun grants intellectual gifts by which a man helps himself.

chus (חוס) and chemlah (חמלה)

Neither is among the Thirteen Attributes. Malbim: both can be felt toward any entity, not only an intelligent one; in English, "caring." Chus is refusing to let a thing be destroyed because one would lose the benefit one has from it (the chas of chas v'shalom). Chemlah is refusing to let a thing be ruined because of an innate quality in it, a beauty or a completeness one does not want to see spoiled. Wertheimer: chemlah extends to pitying one who cannot ask for help, a child or one without the faculties to ask.

Rendering guidance

• רחום / רחמים: "merciful," "mercy," "compassion"; רחמנות as a middah: "compassion" (or transliterate rachmanus in a mussar text).
• חנון / חן: "gracious," "grace," "favor"; חנינה: "pardon," "clemency."
• חוס / חס: "spare," "have regard for" (Yonah 4:10, chasta on the kikayon, reads "you took pity on," but the sense is sparing a loss); חמלה: "pity," "compassion for" in the sense of not letting a thing be spoiled.
• Trap: English "mercy" and "pity" each absorb three of these. In the Thirteen Attributes and wherever רחום וחנון stand together, keep "merciful and gracious"; where חמלה or חוס joins them, use "pity" or "spare" so the third word is not a repeat.
• Together, order and attribution follow the pasuk (Rabbeinu Bachaya notes both orders occur); do not reorder for climax as one does with bushah and klimah.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Mercy or Pity," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 23 Adar II 5778 (2018-03-10): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7679-mercy-or-pity.md. Primary loci the article cites: Rabbeinu Bachaya to Shemos; Rashi to Devarim 3:23; gloss to Tosafos, Rosh Hashanah 17b; Ibn Ramoch to Tehillim 86:16, 112:4, 145:8; Malbim on chus and chemlah. Two things the article does not supply: it gives no chapter and verse for the Thirteen Attributes (they are Shemos 34:6-7, and rachum v'chanun is in 34:6), and it names Wertheimer only as "Rabbi Wertheimer," the fuller name in the front matter here being an identification of ours. The Yonah 4:10 example under Rendering guidance is likewise ours, not the article's.