Q. If someone learning in a Beis Medreh many hours, needs to take a break and sleep some time. In order to avoid loosing too much time, can he just fall asleep on his Shtender, which is permitted in a Beis Hamedresh, or is it better to go to the parking lot and sleep while reclining inside his car?

A. On question 152 regarding if one does comply with a mitzva by just sitting in a shul or Beis Medrash. If one gets tired during learning and needs to stop, should he better remain in the Beis Haedrash (rather than start walking around, talking a walk, etc.)? Should one stay and comply with this mitzvah when he puts his head down, etc. on a Shtender, or falls asleep on a chair?

We wrote: “Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 151: 1) rules in regards to entering a shul or a Beis Hamedresh to call someone, that he should first sit some time, since staying in them is a mitzva, as it is written; “Ashrei yoshvei beisecha.” We indeed recite thrice a day the Psalm (145) of Ashrei yoshvei beisecha, often translated as ‘praiseworthy are the dwellers of your house’. We also thank Hashem after finishing learning and after ending a volume of Talmud; “Samta chelkeinu miyoshvei Beis Hamedresh” for having given us the opportunity of being from the ones that stay or reside in a Beis Hamedresh.
A House of Study also offers spiritual protection from the surrounding dangers of the libertine streets.
(See Suka 52b)

On Pirkei Avos (5: 17) we mention: There are four types among those who attend the house of study:
He who goes and does not study–he has the reward of his going. It would seem that just attending is a rewarded mitzva.

Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a explained that the reason the one who does not study now is rewarded, is due to the kavod and honor he bestows on the Torah being learned in the Beis Hamedresh.”

However, Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that it is better, for the Kavod and honor of the Beis Hamedresh to exit to another room or place and sleep there even temporarily, when possible.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit’a