When it comes to the origins of Judaism, I was used to hold to the theory that it evolved from the worship of a generic storm god called Yahweh, that eventually became such a central and exclusive deity he was acclaimed to be the creator of all things and, so holy, that even portraying his face or saying his name became taboo.
But critically analyzing the Old Testament (specially the Torah), I couldn’t find that much support for this idea.
Something that really clarified my understanding was when I heard the words “Kami-sama, arigatou” in a Japanese song. The subtitles translated it as “God, thank you”, but I don’t see, in Japanese media, people calling on God’s name as it is done in the West.