the gemorrah asks about skipping from the kohen gadol's readhing on yom kippur - but didn't we give a special heter over there for him to read ba'al peh specifically so that the kahal did not have to wait for him to roll?
michael rubin, bklyn, ny
There are 2 seperate issues involved here:
(1) the prohibition of skipping around in the Torah,
(2) the prohibition of reading Torah by heart.
Rashi 24a DH VE'EIN MEDALGIN explains that the reason for (1) is because someone who hears the reader jumping around from one passage to another does not possess the concentration to hear the words of the Torah properly.
The Gemara (70a) explains that prohibition (2) was waived aside because it would take too long to roll the Sefer Torah from Vayikra to Devarim and this would thereby represent a lack of respect for the congregation since they would have to sit quietly and wait for the resumption of the reading.
Therefore even though the Mishnah (Yoma 68b) states that the Kohen Gadol was allowed to read by heart the passage in Devarim discussing Yom Kipur, nevertheless when the Gemara asked here how one may skip from the passage about Yom Kipur in Acharei Mos to the passage about Yom Kipur in Parshas Emor, it would not help to answer that one reads it by heart because (1) would still be transgressed.
Nor does that section need to be read by heart because the two passages are close enough together for the Sefer to be rolled from one to the other before the translator finished translating, so the congregation would not have to wait.
However Abaye answered (in his 2nd answer) that one is allowed to skip in the Torah if the same subject matter is discussed in both passages, because this way the congregation does not get confused (Rashi DH BE'INYAN).
KOL TUV
D. Bloom