Introduction
   And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to Yahweh.  And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your Elohim. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people.  You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.  It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath,” Leviticus 23:26-32. (English Standard Version used throughout, unless otherwise noted.) 
  Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the Covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that The Way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when the Messiah appeared as a High Priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) He entered once for all into the Holy Places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to Yahweh, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living Elohim. Therefore He is the Mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.  For when every commandment of the Torah had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the Book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that Yahweh commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.  Indeed, under the Torah almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, Hebrews 9:11-12.

Atonement … Expiation … Propitiation
   These two passages, the first from the Torah, and the second a reiteration in the Renewed Covenant through Yahshua, our Atonement, Expiation, Propitiation – For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator… And almost all things are by the Torah purged with blood: and without shedding of blood there is no remission, Hebrews 9:16, 22, KJV – inextricably associate Passover (Pesach) with the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and purport to presenting language common to both observances.
   Atonement … Expiation … Propitiation – words, defined by Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of the English Language, as follows:
      • Atonement: Agreement; concord; reconciliation after enmity or controversy;
      • Expiation: Satisfaction or reparation made by giving an equivalent for an injury, or by doing or suffering that which is received in satisfaction for an offense or injury;
      • Propitiation: The act of appeasing wrath and conciliating the favor of an offended person.
   Atonement … Expiation … Propitiation – Yahshua our Messiah (haMaschiach) satisfies Webster’s definitions of all three words. His sacrifice assuaged Yahweh’s wrath and indignation and rendered His Dear Son, propitious to sinners. Yahshua the Messiah is, therefore, become the atonement, expiation, and propitiation for the sins of men, as it is written: And He (Yahshua) is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for [the sins] of the whole world, KJV.
   Of both Passover and the Day of Atonement, we have received statutory ordinance from Yahweh that these two days were to be observed with holy convocation (miqra kodesh, Lev. 23:4). (And with respect to the former observance, Yahshua at that time when He took Passover with His Apostles (shelachim) commanded them concerning this annual memorial, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” Luke 22:19. And likewise, had the Apostle Paul (Sha’ul) so instructed the Assembly at Corinth, writing, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Master’s death until He comes, 1 Corinthians 11:26.)

Affliction Secures Redemption
   Now, Passover and the Day of Atonement share another property, peculiar to their observances. While, the weekly Sabbath (another commanded holy convocation) is referenced by the Prophet Isaiah (YeshaYah) as a delight, the set apart of Yahweh, honorable (Isa. 58:13), the other annual Sabbaths observed in their appointed times (moedim) – the Days of Unleavened Bread (chag matzot), the Feast of Weeks (shavuot), the Day of Trumpets (yom teruah), and the Feast of Tabernacles (sukkot) – are marked with thanksgiving and festivity for the agricultural harvests in their seasons, Passover and the Day of Atonement are regarded as memorials of passing from darkness to Light (1 Pet. 2:9) and from death to Life John 5:24). And while their occasions should seem to excite a celebratory mood, consideration of the Price paid (1 Cor. 6:20) – the betrayal of Innocent Blood (Matt. 27:4) – to secure our redemption, salvation, and deliverance should rather, evoke a contemplative mood … hardly thought consonant with festivity and the merriment that are commanded by Yahweh to characterize the other Holy Days.
  And particularly in this vein, is the Day of Atonement – And Yahweh spoke to Moses (Moshe),saying,  “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to Yahweh.  And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your Elohim. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.  And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath,” Leviticus 23:26-32, (emphasis ours). 
  Of interest to our present discussion, is this word afflict. The Hebrew word here is (H.6031, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance) a-nah’ pronounced, aw-naw’ and rendered, to depress literally or figuratively, transitive or intransitive, and in various applications as follows: abase self, afflict, chasten self, deal hard with, humble (the self) and perhaps by extension, the desire, the lust, the pleasure and hardly, thought consonant with festivity and merriment but more in agreement with commemorating death, and particularly, the redemption-death of Yahshua our Messiah!
  For sure, abasing, afflicting, chastening one’s self; dealing hard with, and humbling one’s self … his appetite, desire, lust; and ceasing to do his own pleasure on this Day is both Good and Acceptable in bringing his body and his spirit into obedience to Yahweh’s Commandments and therewith, fulfilling whole duty and reasonable service. Well might we conclude therefore, The Day of Atonement is most closely related to, and identified with, suffering in the flesh whereby one can become instructed in learning obedience (Heb. 5:8) and ceasing from continuing in sin (1 Pet. 4:1).
  Nevertheless, afflicting one’s self through denying the flesh its desire – and represented by depriving the olfactory, palate and stomach their appetite – is but a token of what constitutes “If you would be perfect” – a reply given by the Master to a certain one who had professed himself having kept the Commandments from his youth (Matt. 19:20-21).

The Chosen Fast
   And yet, is there a Chosen Fast that is far more pleasing to the Giver of the Ordinance than to afflict one’s self through denying the olfactory, palate and the stomach their appetite. For ancient Israel to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the Covenants, and the giving of the Torah, and the service of Eloha, and the promises (Rom. 9:4) and who ought therefore, to have been advantaged in every way, seeing the Oracles had been committed to their trust (Rom. 3:1-2), had neither apprehended nor attained to obeying the Law of Righteousness (Rom. 9:30).
  For though they afflicted their souls, they had not gotten to themselves the favor of Him Who had given the Commandment.
   Indeed, for though a man might,
    • make his voice to be heard on high;
    • bow down his head as a bulrush, spreading sackcloth and ashes under him (Isa. 58:4-5);
    • disfigure his face and present with sad countenance (Matt. 6:16);
    • omit the weightier matters of loosening, undoing, and breaking from himself the straps and bonds and yokes of wickedness;
    • setting the oppressed free;
    • taking away the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity;
    • turning not his foot away from the Sabbath,
    • showing piety at home by providing for his own;
    • sharing his bread with the hungry, his drink with the thirsty;
    • preparing a lodging for the stranger, clothing the naked;
    • visiting the infirmed and imprisoned, and distributing to the necessity of those in need … and all, without seeking the notice of men – yes, the doing of such things at variance with, at enmity against, and contrary to his fallen nature, denying his flesh its pleasure on but One Day will count for little of nothing in the great and notable day when he will stand before that Just Judge and give an accounting for what he knew to do, but did not (Isa. 58:6-7; 1 Tim. 5:4, 8; Matt. 25:35-36; Rom. 12:13). 

Conclusion
   Obedience to the Commandment is followed with His exceeding great and precious Promise:
   Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, “Here I am.” … then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And Yahweh will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. … you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of Yahweh honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in Yahweh, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, Isaiah 58:8-14.