הַמֶּֽלֶךְ הַקָּדוֹשׁ The holy King: During the Ten Days of Repentance we substitute this phrase for “the holy God,” to emphasize that these are days of judgment in which we are especially conscious of divine sovereignty over all humanity. For this reason too, in the eleventh paragraph we substitute “the King of justice” for the usual ending.

AFTERNOON SERVICE One of the reasons it is our custom to say the confession during Minḥa on the afternoon prior to Yom Kippur, is because the afternoon of the ninth of Tishrei already partakes of some of the holiness of Yom Kippur itself, as it says: “From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your Sabbath” (Lev. 23:32).