helek

English

Alternative forms

• chelek

Etymology

Borrowed from Hebrew חֵלֶק (ḥēleq).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈheɪlɪk/, /ˈxeɪlɪk/

Noun

helek (plural halakim)

1. (Judaism) A unit of time equal to the eighteenth part of a minute (3⅓ seconds)
   • 1992, L.E. Doggett, “Calendars”, in P. Kenneth Seidelman, editor, Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac, page 585:

     For calendrical calculations, the day begins at 6 P.M., which is designated 0 hours. Hours are divided into 1080 halakim; thus one helek is 3 1/3 seconds.

   • 2004, Sheldon Epstein, Bernard Dickman, Yonah Wilamowsky, “A 5765 Anomaly”, in Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, volume 38, number 3, page 585:

     By some estimates the mean lunation was actually 29.5 days and 793 halakim somewhere around the beginning of the Common Era.