Have Mercy

 

What does it mean to have mercy? Is it like pity? Is it something special beyond sympathy? I think that it signals a very special type of relationship.

 

Mercy is a favor. Mercy is an act of unnecessary compassion – unwarranted and undeserved. It is a show of connection that goes beyond simply being nice. It isn’t pity, because pity is just about feeling sorry for someone.

 

Because mercy is undeserved, asking for mercy is an admission, a confession. Asking implicitly includes “I know I have no grounds for asking but” or “Yes, I’m wrong, but still…” I would suggest that one of the components of repentance, the confession of wrong doing, could be considered to be fulfilled at least in part by the simple act of praying for mercy because asking God for mercy is an admission that, were it not for mercy, the individual would, indeed, be subject to punishment because of guilt.

 

The Hebrew word for mercy adds in another important dimension. The word is “rachamim” and this develops from (according to Ernest Klein’s dictionary) other middle eastern languages which all share a root meaning “mercy” or “compassion”. Mattiyahu Clark’s take includes another idea, “showing maternal-type mercy.” Why maternal? Back to Klein – the r-ch-m root goes back to the Akkadian “remu” which is the root for both mercy and womb (in fact, the Hebrew word for womb is rechem). Mercy is the compassion that a mother has, without concern for actual guilt. Your mother loves you no matter what and accepts you regardless of what you have done (as in “a face only a mother could love” or, more seriously, the maternal instinct to protect the young).

 

What is amazing though is that, while this is an attribute which we connect to the maternal sense, Hashem is often shown having this same connection to us even though he is also a father figure. We call upon the av harachamim and say before the morning Sh’ma that Hashem is “avinu, ha’av harachaman ham’rachem” our father, the father who is merciful (which is like saying “the dad with the womb”). This is a lesson to us all – the impossible is possible. We need to see this type of mercy, even by those whom one would think incapable, as our standard practice.

 

So when we are asked for mercy, we should approach the situation charitably – the petitioner is admitting guilt and we should find in us that Godly mother-feeling and be merciful to each other.