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

[Prof. Levine]

At 02:47 PM 2/6/2008, Micha wrote:
>Not sure of the point of RYL's last sentence, since the Babylonian
>minute was 1/60 of a sha'ah zemanis, not a standard hour.

I have to admit that until I read what you wrote and did some 
checking that I was under the impression the Babylonian hour was a 
fixed hour of 60 minutes like the one we have today.

The following is from http://tinyurl.com/ywswom

Once both the light and dark hours were divided into 12 parts, the 
concept of a 24-hour day was in place. The concept of fixed-length 
hours, however, did not originate until the Hellenistic period, when 
Greek astronomers began using such a system for their theoretical 
calculations. Hipparchus, whose work primarily took place between 147 
and 127 B.C., proposed dividing the day into 24 equinoctial hours, 
based on the 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness observed 
on equinox days. Despite this suggestion, lay people continued to use 
seasonally varying hours for many centuries. (Hours of fixed length 
became commonplace only after mechanical clocks first appeared in 
Europe during the 14th century.)

thank you for making me aware of this.

YL



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