Editing Yahweh (section)

==Worship==
{{Main article|Yahwism}}

===Festivals and sacrifice===
{{see also|Feast of Wine}}
The centre of Yahweh's worship lay in three great annual festivals coinciding with major events in rural life: [[Passover]] with the birthing of [[Sheep|lambs]], [[Shavuot]] with the [[cereal]] harvest, and [[Sukkot]] with the fruit harvest.{{sfn|Albertz|1994|p=89}} These probably pre-dated the arrival of the Yahweh religion,{{sfn|Albertz|1994|p=89}} but they became linked to events in the [[national myth]]os of Israel: Passover with [[the exodus]] from Egypt, Shavuot with the law-giving at [[Mount Sinai (Bible)|Mount Sinai]], and Sukkot with the [[wilderness]] wanderings.{{sfn|Davies|2010|p=112}} The festivals thus celebrated Yahweh's [[salvation]] of Israel and Israel's status as his holy people, although the earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost.{{sfn|Gorman|2000|p=458}} His worship presumably involved sacrifice, but many scholars have concluded that the rituals detailed in [[Leviticus]] 1–16, with their stress on purity and [[Atonement in Judaism|atonement]], were introduced only after the [[Babylonian exile]], and that in reality any head of a family was able to offer sacrifice as occasion demanded.{{sfn|Davies|Rogerson|2005|pp=151–152}} A number of scholars have also drawn the conclusion that [[infant sacrifice]], whether to the underworld deity [[Molech]] or to Yahweh himself, was a part of Israelite/Judahite religion until the reforms of [[King Josiah]] in the late 7th century BCE.{{sfn|Gnuse|1997|p=118}} Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of [[psalms]], but again the details are scant.{{sfn|Davies|Rogerson|2005|pp=158–165}} [[Jewish prayer|Prayer]] played little role in official worship.{{sfn|Cohen|1999|p=302}}

===Temples===
[[File:Tissot Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|alt=In the foreground, a bearded man dressed in an impressive white robe and head-dress raises his hand to heaven.  Behind him, a large crowd bows in prayer.|[[Solomon]] dedicates the [[Temple in Jerusalem]] (painting by [[James Tissot]] or follower, c. 1896–1902).]]
The Hebrew Bible gives the impression that the Jerusalem temple was always meant to be the central or even sole temple of Yahweh, but this was not the case.{{sfn|Davies|2010|p=112}} The earliest known Israelite place of worship is a 12th-century BCE open-air altar in the hills of [[Samaria]] featuring a bronze bull reminiscent of Canaanite [[El (deity)#Ugarit and the Levant|Bull-El]] (El in the form of a bull) and the archaeological remains of further temples have been found at [[Dan (ancient city)|Dan]] on Israel's northern border, at [[Tel Arad|Arad]] in the [[Negev]] and [[Tel Be'er Sheva|Beersheba]], both in the territory of Judah.{{sfn|Dever|2003a|p=388}} [[Shiloh (biblical city)|Shiloh]], [[Bethel]], [[Gilgal]], [[Mizpah in Benjamin|Mizpah]], [[Ramah in Benjamin|Ramah]] and Dan were also major sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of [[Vow#Divine vows|vows]], private rituals, and the adjudication of legal disputes.{{sfn|Bennett|2002|p=83}}

===Portrayal===
Prohibition of depictions of Yahweh are a late idea and entered around the age of the Deuteronomy texts{{sfn|Mettinger|2006|pp=288–290}} There is no universally accepted explanation for such [[aniconism]], and a number of scholars have argued that Yahweh was in fact represented prior to the reforms of [[Hezekiah]] and [[Josiah]] late in the monarchic period: to quote one study, "[a]n early aniconism, ''[[de facto]]'' or otherwise, is purely a projection of the post-exilic imagination".{{sfn|MacDonald|2007|pp=21, 26–27}} Other scholars{{Who?|date=May 2025}} argue that there is no certain evidence of any [[anthropomorphic]] representation of Yahweh during the pre-exilic period.{{sfn|Lewis|2020|pp=293–297}}