ויקרא, פרק כ״ג, פסוק כ״ו

The introduction to the laws of the Day of Atonement presents a noticeable shift from the usual pattern of the biblical festivals. Throughout the calendar of appointed times, God typically provides an explicit instruction to pass the message along to the Israelites. Yet, in the prelude to the Day of Atonement, this familiar directive is entirely missing.

The primary approach among commentators is that this omission is highly intentional, signaling that the Day of Atonement is not a separate, standalone event. Instead, it is deeply intertwined with the festival that immediately precedes it, the New Year. The New Year acts as a vital preparation, while the Day of Atonement serves as its ultimate purpose and completion. Because these two holy days form a single spiritual process, Moses explained the Day of Atonement to the Israelites at the exact same time he taught them about the New Year. Consequently, there was no need for God to issue a renewed command to address the people [רש ר הירש, אברבנאל].

Another perspective suggests that the command to address the Israelites is absent because the primary laws and intricate details of the Day of Atonement had already been taught to them previously [אברבנאל]. Even so, the text explicitly records God speaking directly to Moses. This ensures the understanding that the Day of Atonement, while connected to earlier teachings, flows from a direct divine source and stands on its own level of supreme importance [אברבנאל].

This dual nature of being both distinct and connected is reflected in the physical layout of the Torah scroll. The section begins as a closed paragraph, a traditional formatting style indicating a topic that is clearly defined, yet meant to be read as a continuous, unbroken extension of the subject that came right before it [מנחת שי].