Bar Enosh — Son of Weakness and Mortality
Beginning with the enigmatic Aramaic phrase bar enosh of Daniel 7:13, this meditation hears the expression against the Semitic associations of enosh with human frailty and mortality (going back to an old Semitic verb ’-n-sh “to be weak, to be mortal”). The terrifying beasts of Daniel 7 symbolize kingdoms whose apparent strength is expressed through domination; against them appears one bearing the vulnerability of humanity. The poem follows that paradox into Christ: the incarnate Son of God assumes weakness and mortality not by avoiding them but by entering them, even into death, so that mortality itself may be transfigured. The movement finally reaches every vulnerable person, the orphan, widow, pilgrim, sick, dying, and forgotten, suggesting that what worldly power dismisses as weakness may become precisely the place where divine strength is disclosed (2 Cor 12:9).