Prayer and Blessings
What Is Permitted to Study at Night?
Can One Study Torah at Night and Recite Tehillim After Midnight?
Question
The Ben Ish Hai writes in Parashat Vayishlach that one should not recite the blessings over the Torah at night until dawn breaks. It is well known that at night one does not study from the Written Torah, such as Mikra Chok LeYisrael. What, then, may be studied at night, and is it correct to begin study after midnight with the recitation of Tehillim?
Thank you very much
Answer
Greetings,
1. It should first be noted that the rule that one does not recite the blessings over the Torah until dawn applies only if one has not arisen from a fixed sleep during the night. However, one who slept a fixed sleep in his bed at night and then rose to study Torah, whether he awoke before midnight or after it, must recite the blessings over the Torah before studying (see Yabia Omer, vol. 8, Orach Chaim, siman 5).
2. One may study Torah shebe'al peh at night, and according to the basic halacha it is also permitted to study Torah shebichtav at night, although according to Kabbalah it is preferable to refrain from doing so if one will study Torah shebe'al peh instead.
3. Even according to Kabbalah, it is permissible to recite Tehillim after midnight (Yabia Omer, vol. 6, Orach Chaim, siman 30).
4. To begin study after midnight with the recitation of Tehillim is very good, as King David, peace be upon him, was accustomed to do (see Berachot 3b).
With blessings, Hillel Meirs
