4/1/20 - "Good Morning Everyone, It's Hump Day!" and Trigonometry

          Like any High School-age children, ours take math and are studying Trigonometry, you remember sine (SIN) and cosine (COS), cotangent (COT) and triangles, lots of triangles. By the way, that is about all that I remember about trigonometry except for the Trigonometry matchbook that had all four-digit numerical values for these various sins because the Math Textbooks were written before scientific calculators. In any case, as I was looking over our son's math homework and vaguely recalling all these terms and images.  The images of Sine and Cosine became most evident when projections of the COVID -19 modeling was shown at the President's press conference from the day before. On a graph,  the Sine curve  "0" it slopes upward reaches an apex and then slopes downward back to "0" and then begins to curve upward again. Those are like the "waves' we see in radio waves etc. The Cosine curve does not begin at "0" on the graph but rather on a number on the vertical axis above "0", That line begins to slope downward, reaches a nadir, begins to slope upward reaches an apex and then begins its downward slope. The difference between the two is the starting point. Now that the math lesson is over, I looked at my son's math homework with COVID 19 models floating in my mind when I thought about we understand the 7 day week.  When I was a High School student and college student, the rock station I listened to would always call Wednesday "Hump Day". "Good morning everyone, it's humpday!",  said the DJ. The image suggests that once you get through Wednesday its "all downhill" and only three days until the weekend. If we were drawing the trigonometric curves that my son and daughter are studying, then the first day of the week begins at "0" curves upward and then reaches an apex on Wednesday and then slopes downward back to "0" by the Weekend. When looking at this particular curve, with Wednesday as the apex of the curve, Wednesday is the "Humpday" the highest point of the curve.  However the Cosine version would be graphed differently,  Shabbat would begin the curve at the highest point, slope downward reaching the bottom of the slope on Wednesday and then begin sloping upward reaching an Apex on Shabbat. In this illustration, Wednesday is not a humpday but rather a valley, a low point between the most recent Shabbat and the approaching Shabbat.
          In the secular world, we see Wednesday as "Humpday". However to observe Judaism, one is constantly aware of Shabbat. Every morning at the conclusion of Shacharit we say Shir Shel Yom - The Psalm of the Day. Each day has a corresponding psalm. However Yom ReVi'I, Wednesday, slightly different. Wednesdays' psalm includes the entire 94th psalm AND the first three verses of the 95th psalm. The question is why does  Wednesday's "Song of the Day" include more than just the one psalm. In fact,  the excerpt from the 2nd psalm that is included for Wednedays's song includes the words: Lechu NeRanena L'Adoshem Naria Lo Yisheinu - Come let us sing to Hashem Let us call out to the Rock of our salvation... (95:1-3). That is also the exact same psalm, the 95th Psalm that we say on Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday night as we welcome Shabbat.   Halachically is the earliest day that one can begin wishing people "Shabbat Shalom" or "Gut Shabbos".  Clearly, it  becomes a matter of perspective. Judaism views Kedusha, holiness as aspirational something that elevates the soul. The further removed from Shabbat the less elevated the soul and the more distant we feel from Shabbat and the holiness that if offers. Needless to say when I shared that with my son and daughter, sine and cosine took on a whole new mindblowing understanding.  More importantly, we can begin wishing each other "Good Shabbos".

Peace,
Rav Yitz





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