The Avodah is the section of the Yom Kippur Mussaf prayer that describes the ancient Temple service. Its name means “service” or “worship,” and it recalls the work of the High Priest on Yom Kippur.
The passage recounts the elaborate ceremony in the Jerusalem Temple: the High Priest’s preparations, ritual immersions, changes of garments, offerings, incense, entry into the Holy of Holies, confessions, and the sending away of the scapegoat. It is a poetic liturgical retelling rather than a contemporary sacrifice.
Different Jewish communities use different Avodah poems, including the Ashkenazi Amitz Koach and the Sephardi Atah Konanta. In many traditional congregations, worshippers bow at points corresponding to the High Priest’s pronouncement of the divine name. Aleinu, Kaddish, and Hallel are also important Jewish prayers, but none is the distinctive Mussaf section recounting the Temple ritual.