I

t was a bit of hyperbole when Prime Minister Netanyahu said to the Israeli winner of the 2018 Eurovision singing contest, “You brought kavod [honor] to Israel.”

Which is perhaps understandable, especially for secular Israelis, who are starved for international approval and recognition. Obviously, it is fine to win international competitions. No one disputes the skill and talent that goes into winning against the world’s top performers, or sports victories against the world’s top athletes.

But “honor to Israel”? Perhaps “recognition” or “pride” or “appreciation” would have been more appropriate. But kavod/honor is a bit over the top, and reflects a universal lack of understanding of this crucial Jewish concept.

For kavod is an idea, not just another word in the Hebrew lexicon. It is found more than 200 times in the Tanach, and is far more profound than the clichéd and mangled word “honor.”

It is not a coincidence, for example, that kavod is so close to the word kaveid: both use the Hebrew letters kaf, beis, and daled. Kaveid means something that has weight and substance, that is immovable, not ephemeral, not changeable or fleeting. Similarly, in the English language, a great thinker might be known as “ an intellectual heavyweight,” though his opponents might use a corresponding put-down and claim that he is “an intellectual lightweight,” or “has no gravitas” — gravitas meaning seriousness, something not light but weighty, like gravity.

Kavod has similar connotations: it refers to something weighty and not transitory. “Kabeid es avicha,” usually translated as “honor thy father and mother,” really means give them kavod; do not take them lightly. Dealing with them is a weighty matter. Treat them seriously, not casually. Thus, in Bereishis 13:2, when Avraham is described as “kaveid me’od b’mikneh — very kaveid in livestock,” it’s referring to something weighty, significant, important — i.e., he had much livestock.

Additional support for kavod as something weighty is found in the classic Biblical Targumic translators like Onkelos and Yonasan ben Uziel. For them, the Hebrew kavod is equivalent to the Aramaic yakar, which also means “precious” and “glorious.” So is it used in the prayer when the Torah is removed from the Ark: “Shmei kaddisha yakira — His holy and glorious Name.” Similarly, Yonasan renders Isaiah 6:3 — the familiar “melo kol ha’aretz kevodo” — as “the world is filled with ziv yekarei — the radiance of His glory.”

Kavod is ubiquitous in its meaning of something precious and significant and weighty. Not only does it connote glory as in Tehillim 30, not only does it describe G-d’s throne, but, as the kabbalists point out, the numerical equivalent of kavod is 26, which is also the numerical equivalent of the ineffable four-letter Name of G-d. And what can be more weighty, and bear more gravitas and glory, than the Creator Himself?

But enough of etymology. Suffice it to say that kavod means much more than the ephemeral and meaningless word “honor.”

It is laudatory and, for some, a source of pride, to win international competitions against the best in the world. But what really brings kavod to Israel lies beneath the radar, beyond the well-deserved achievements in medicine, science, and technology, and even beyond having the US embassy in Jerusalem: the study halls filled with students studying Torah; the synagogues filled with serious worshippers acknowledging the Presence of G-d; ordinary Israelis behaving in ways that bring glory to G-d and to His land; the daily chesed and tzedakah and menschlichkeit of Jews around the world. These bring true kavod — weighty and significant recognition — to G-d and His land. In ultimate terms, such kavod and recognition is everlasting.

Mr. Prime Minister, your Hebrew is far superior to mine. But that little word, kavod, tripped you up. With all due respect, or as we say in Hebrew, bimechilas kevodcha, please bear in mind that kavod is laden with meaning. It is not to be used casually, nor to be taken lightly. (Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 712)