Or HaChaim on Exodus 28:35/אור החיים על שמות כ״ח:ל״ה

1 ובצאתו ולא ימות. "and when he comes out, so that he will not die." It appears from this verse that if the High Priest's tunic did not have the bells that could be heard he would be guilty of the death penalty to be administered by Heaven. Were this not so and the verse had referred to the absence of the garment to which the bells were attached or to any of his special garments, the words: "so that he will not die" should have beeen written after the list of the garments was complete in verse 43. The fact that the Torah did not wait with this clause until then is to teach us that even the absence of the bells only made the High Priest liable to death at the hands of Heaven. Repetition of the threat of death in verse 43 refers to a priest who serves without one or more of the garments he is to wear at that time.