By Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
In Part 1 of this essay we looked the Hebrew word ahavah and its various forms, offering various etymological theories as to the core root of that word and its underlying conceptual idea. In Part II of this essay, we continue our exploration of the concept of “love” by focusing on additional Hebrew words that convey the same idea or similar ideas — r’chim, chibah, and agav. We will look at the respective etymologies of these terms and their related cognates while trying to better understand how they may differ from ahavah, both conceptually and etymologically.
In general, the root REISH-CHET-MEM in Biblical Hebrew usually refers to “pity/mercy” (racheim/rachamim), “womb” (rechem/racham), or a type of bird (racham, see Lev. 11:18 and Deut. 14:17). However, in one particular case, it actually means “love.” Let me illustrate this explanation by noting that whenever the verb form of “pitying,” appears in the first person, the vowel under the REISH is always a patach (for example, aracheim in Ex. 33:19, Jer. 13:14, 30:18, Hos. 1:6–7, 2:6 and arachamenu in Jer. 31:20). However, there is once instance of a verb form of this root in which the vowel under the REISH is not a patach: King David composed a hymn that celebrated Hashem saving him from his enemies, which begins with the words: "I will You — O Hashem — strengthen me!" (Ps. 18:2). The word erchamcha is clearly a derivative of the root REISH-CHET-MEM, but in this case it obviously does not refer to King David pitying Hashem. Instead, the commentators (including Ibn Janach, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Ibn Ramoch, and others) all explain that in this case, the verb in question means “I [King David] will love You [Hashem].”
Although this is the only case of the term r’chim in the Bible that clearly refers to “love,” the Targumim are replete with such usages. In fact, the standard Aramaic term in the Targumim for rendering the Hebrew ahavah is r’chim. Some readers may be familiar with the term r’chim from the L’Shem Yichud prayer (a formulaic Kabbalistic declaration recited before performing mitzvot), whereby one refers to dechilu u’rechimu, which means the “fear” (dachal) and “love” (r’chim) of Hashem.
Although the concepts of “love” and “pity/mercy” are not quite the same idea, Rabbi Yitzchak Avineri (1900-1977) writes that it is not too astonishing that both meanings could be expressed by the same root — REISH-CHET-MEM — because love is the root of mercy in the sense that one only has mercy on those whom he loves. This jibes with the explanation of ahavah we offered in Part I that sees true love as an altruistic desire to give or help out one’s beloved.
Similarly, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (to Ex. 13:2) bridges the gaps between the various meanings of this triliteral root by defining its primary semantic denotation as "motherliness protection." He uses this to explain the connection between rechem (the place in her body, wherein a mother protects her unborn fetus) and rachamim (i.e., the dominant trait of a protective mother), which also fits with our conception of "love." We may add that the bird racham (often understood to mean "carrion-vulture" or "osprey") relates to these ideas because it serves as the harbinger of “rain,” which is closely related to mercy (see Chullin 63a), and because this mother bird is understood to act especially merciful to its young (see Peirush HaRokach and Moshav Zekanim to Lev. 11:18).
Interestingly, there is one person in the Bible named Racham (I Chron. 2:44), as well as various people in the Talmud named Rav Rechumi or Ben-Rechumi (Pesachim 39a, Ketubot 62b, Nazir 13a, Zevachim 77a). It remains unclear whether these given name refer to “love,” “mercy,” “rain,” or something else entirely.
For the continuation of this essay that goes on to explore the Hebrew words chibah and agav, as well as the Greek word agape, visit us online at:https://ohr.edu/this_week/whats_in_a_word/
