(a) R' Yirmiyah ben Elazar said, 'any house which words of torah are said at night will never be destroyed'.
If the Rambam holds a person learns most of his wisdom at night (Artscroll Shottenstein note #31) does that mean that a persons mind is NOT most able to learn torah first thing in the morning? I thought first thing in the morning was the best time to learn?
".......he who gives song at night (Job 35:10)"
(b) I don't understand how this is used to prove the 'words of torah at night'. I had thought that Dovid haMelech was rebuked for referring to words of Torah as song. Is this true?
Could it be refering to Tehillim? I had thought night (or at least the first part of the night) was not the proper time to recite Tehillim. Is not Tehillim certainly refered to as songs? If so, is R Yirmiyah ben Elazar only refering to that part of the night when it IS proper to recite Tehillim? And would learning Torah in the first part of the night (while ANY time of the day or night would be GOOD to learn Torah) not satisfy the requirement of R Yirmiyah ben Elazar's teaching?
Thanks,
Gedaliah
(a) Rav Moshe Shapiro, shlita, asked a similar question: we find in a number of places throughout Shas that the primary time for learning in the Beis Medrash with others was during the day. The Gemara in Berachos (63b) says that destruction comes to those who learn alone without others. If so, how can the Rambam say that one acquires most of his wisdom at night, when he is learning alone?
He answered that the Gemara must mean that one reviews his learning at night, and by reviewing one acquires most of his wisdom, since he understands it better and remembers it. This can certainly be done alone.
(b) You are referring to the Gemara in Sotah (35a) which says that David ha'Melech was punished because he referred to Divrei Torah as "songs." Rav Moshe Shapiro explained that certainly Divrei Torah are songs, for this verse was included as part of Tehilim, and we recite it in Tehilim: "Your laws were to me as songs" (Tehilim 119:54). We find in a number of other places as well that the Torah is referred to as "Shirah," or song.
It must be that the reason why David ha'Melech was punished is because his intention was to say that Divrei Torah are as easy for him to learn as songs (see the Gemara there in Sotah). However, it is certainly possible to compare Divrei Torah to songs in other ways (such as the joy of the one who learns Torah, etc., see Rashi ibid.).
(See also Maharsha here, for a slightly different answer. See also Insights to Sotah 35a.)
Best wishes,
-Mordecai