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Why doesn't Yom Kippur ever fall on a Sunday?
Happy New Year, Jeremy L.
Answer:
Since our calendar has been fixed, Yom Kippur can never be on a Friday, Sunday or Tuesday.
The reason for Friday and Sunday is that Yom Kippur is like Shabbat and having back to back Shabbat's could prove challenging in numerous ways.1
For example, Jewish law requires someone to be buried as soon as possible, preferrably the day they pass away or at the latest the next day. On Shabbat we do not bury someone; we wait till Sunday. Similarly, if someone passed away on Yom Kippur we do not bury them that day. If Yom Kippur was Friday and someone passed away on Yom Kippur, or if you Yom Kippur was Sunday and someone passed away on Shabbat, we would not be able to burry that person for two days.
(By the way, if someone died on a holiday, such as Sukkot and it was not Shabbat, we would theoretically bury them on the holiday. Today, with cemeteries far away from Jewish communities we are unable to drive in order to do the funeral, so we must wait).
If Yom Kippur was on a Tuesday, then Hoshanah Rabbah would be on Shabbat, and we could not beat the willow branches.
Footnotes
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Holidays » Yom Kippur
