Rambam - Sefer HaMitzvos: Positive Mitzvah 49: Positive Mitzvah 49

Positive Mitzvah 49: The Yom Kippur service
Leviticus 16:34 "And this shall be an everlasting law for you"

This Positive Mitzvah sums up the detailed commandments regarding the service on Yom Kippur.

We are instructed to offer the many sacrifices of this holy day and recite special confessional prayers.

Have you ever heard of the "Saint in a Fur Coat"? He sits in his house by a fireplace full of wood. But there is no fire. The house, and everyone in it are shivering from the cold. All except for him. He dons a fur coat and he is warm. So we ask him, "Why do you warm up only yourself? Why not kindle the wood in your fireplace and warm up others as well?" He answers, "It is not just my house. All the world is struck with a bitter, cold wind. Do you expect me to warm up an entire world?" So we tell him that he does not have to warm up the entire world. But perhaps he could warm up one other individual.
Perhaps two. Perhaps he could warm up one little corner of the world. "For a person such as I," he replies, "it is not fitting to warm up only one corner." And so there he sits, in his cold, dark house, all comfy in his fur coat.

From: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth by Tzvi Freeman - tzvif@aol.com