EXOD430 The classic text defining the specific requirements to fulfill "Honor your father and your mother" and "You shall fear your mother and your father" Leviticus 19:3 can be found in the Talmud Kiddushin 31b. "Fear" is defined as not sitting or standing in the parent's designated place not contradicting a parent, while "honor" is defined as feeding parents, clothing parents, and helping them come in and out. On the face of it, it does not seem that a person is being honored by making sure they are fed or clothed. These are acts of charity usually reserved for homeless or poor people. How can this be called honor? The Hebrew word in the Torah in the verse regarding parents, kavod, does not really mean honor, which is a poor English translation. In another talmudic statement, Berachot 19b, this same word is used to say that human dignity is extremely important. Therefore, that the true meaning of the word kavod is dignity. Thus, the mitzvah is to dignify one's father and mother, to keep their dignity. We can now understand the specifics mentioned in the Talmud. Keeping parents closed and fed when they can no longer do so for themselves indeed retains their dignity. Similarly, helping them in and out of the house preserves their dignity. Thus, the first mitzvah is to preserve a parent's dignity at all costs. The other term, morah, does not really mean fear or awe as usually translated, but this is the real word for honor and respect. We show respect and honor by not interrupting or by not sitting in someone's seat. The idea of keeping a parent's dignity as the essence of the mitzvah is borne out by passage in the Jerusalem Talmud Pe'ah 3b which says that it is possible to feed one's parent succulent hens and still inherit hell, while a person can make his parent work on a grindstone and still inherit paradise.