1 Nisan · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Rachumai - Tanna
Tanna Rabbi Rachumai was a student of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
Yahrzeit - 1 Nissan
Resting place - Babylon
Some also identify him with the rabbi whose name appears as Nichumai.
He was one of the compilers of the Babylonian Talmud and took part in the process of its completion. According to the Iggeret of Rav Sherira Gaon, he died in the year 506. He is known for his disputes with Rabba Yosei.
Limud
The Holy Zohar
185) Rabbi Pinchas used to meet Rabbi Rachumai on the shore of the Sea of Kinneret. Rabbi Rachumai was a great man of advanced age, and his eyesight had grown dim. He said to Rabbi Pinchas: "I have heard reliably that our friend Yochai has a pearl, a precious stone, that is, a son. I gazed into the radiance of this pearl - it emerges like the light of the sun coming out of its shelter and illuminating the whole world."
Sefer HaBahir 194. Rabbi Rachumai said: "Thus have I received: when Moshe asked to know the knowledge of the Glorious and Awesome Name (Ha-Shem Ha-nichbad ve-Ha-nora), blessed be He, and said (Shemot 33:18): 'Show me Your Glory!' - he wished to know why there is a righteous person who fares well, a righteous person who fares badly, a wicked person who fares well, and a wicked person who fares badly? And he was not informed. Can one think 'he was not informed'? Rather - he was not informed of what he wished to know." "And could it enter your mind that Moshe did not know this secret?" "But Moshe said thus: 'The paths of the powers I know. But I do not know how the thought spreads out (mitpashetet) within them (how a uniform thought passes into these opposites, into changes, without itself changing - Or Haganuz). I know that the thought is Truth, but I do not know its parts,' and he wished to know, but was not informed." See what Rabbi Rachumai says. Rabbi Rachumai is the thirteenth gate. "Thus have I received: when Moshe asked to know the knowledge of the Glorious and Awesome Name, blessed be He, and said: 'Show me Your Glory!' - he wished to know why there is a righteous person who fares well, a righteous person who fares badly, a wicked person who fares well, and a wicked person who fares badly? And he was not informed. Can one think 'he was not informed'? Rather - he was not informed of what he wished to know." How did the reshimo come alive in Malchut, which had been placed within her for the attainment of the property of zivug with the Or Elyon? This occurred at the point when Moshe, below this level, wished to receive the light necessary for grasping the breakdown of the uniform - which is light - into the differences of properties as a person perceives them. In other words: how the creation of the illusion surrounding us comes about. And it was given to him to grasp how this is done. "The paths of the powers I know." He was given the understanding of how the levels gradually change from the unbroken and uniform to the non-uniform and discrete. He saw the gradual change of properties. He was given the understanding, but he did not understand how the Almighty brings this about. And it was impossible to understand this while in a body. But his desire, his aviut, awakened the reshimo of the zivug at the level of Rosh de Malchut de Elyon. "Rabbi Rachumai said: Thus have I received: when Moshe asked to know the knowledge of the Glorious and Awesome Name." "The knowledge of the Glorious and Awesome Name" - that is, of Him Himself. The Glorious - the One who is Glory. How the Or Elyon - which is His Glory - passes into matter. His Name, the grasping of His essence as Glory, not as His Atzmut. That is, His house, His Palace. Everything was given to Moshe, but not this. After the resurrection of the dead he will grasp the Glory. Moshe's soul undergoes the corresponding tikkunim in the bodies of tzadikim, in its separate parts. Then a zivug of the higher soul is made with a new animal soul, which comes through the line of King David from both sides, father and mother. And Moshe's soul, at the end of its own tikkun, in the state of Mashiach, rises to the level of Metatron. He rises to the level of Rabbi Rachumai. Then those who follow him grasp what was Moshe's attainment. "Show me Your Glory!" Show - that is, in the property of Chochma, the eye, in attainment. Moshe asks. "He wished to know why there is a righteous person who fares well, a righteous person who fares badly." That is, how reality forms around a person's soul. The external and the internal, the sense of separation. Explain to me how You do this. "A righteous person who fares well, a righteous person who fares badly, a wicked person who fares well, a wicked person who fares badly. And he was not informed. Can one think 'he was not informed'"? Can one think that they did not wish to? No. Each is given exactly as much as he is able to receive. There is no lack of will on the part of the higher to give. There is an inability of the lower to contain. And what remains uncontained within him is preserved as a record of the attainment of the Or Elyon, that is, His Glory. And this is Rosh de Malchut, Rabbi Rachumai. "But Moshe said thus: 'The paths of the powers I know. But I do not know how the thought spreads out (mitpashetet) within them (how a uniform thought passes into these opposites, into changes, without itself changing)'." "Without changing." He brings sensations into a point without changing around it. And how does He do this? "I know that the thought is Truth, but I do not know its parts." This remains completely transparent, nothing for him to grasp onto. Not because it was withheld from him, but simply because he cannot contain it. As with Avraham. Everything that did not fit within him became the world. All the lights, the brachot, the blessings of the Almighty that did not fit within Avraham, became the world - the surrounding tikkun. Everything he was able to contain became his soul. And the rest became the world around him. The same is true in the case of Moshe. And what he cannot contain is defined by the name Rachumai. That is, Rosh de Malchut de Elyon. May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael!