helek

plural halakim · alternative chelek

1. JudaismA unit of time equal to an eighteenth of a minute (3⅓ seconds)

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

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1992, L.E. Doggett, “Calendars”, in P. Kenneth Seidelman, editor, Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac, page 585