[Avodah] Not Making Kiddush Between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

[Prof. Levine]

At 09:57 AM 2/6/2008, you wrote:

>I understand the source from this is Shabbos 129b.
>
>In fact, there's a nice little chart in the Artscroll Gemara on daf
>129b1.  It shows that Ma'dim influences on Fridays between 6-7 pm.
>
>However -- it also shows other times where Ma'dim is influential --
>for example: Wednesdays between 10am and 11am (or Sundays from
>noon-1pm).   So, suppose a Yom Tov is on a Wednesday (or Sunday),
>would/does anybody refrain from kiddush between those hours?
>
>-- Sholom

What I have never understood is why this is a 60 minute hour and the 
time is based on the "secular" clock. To the best of my knowledge, 
the 60 minute hour is not "generic" to Halacha. The times of the day 
are based on Shaos Z'manios. So why aren't Shaos Z'manios used in the 
determination of what between 6 and 7 means, rather than secular 
time. For the record. the 60 minute hour goes back to the Babylonians 
whose number system used base 60.

Yitzchok Levine