Two men came to pray before Rabbi Eliezer. One prayed at enormous length — pouring out his heart in elaborate, detailed petitions that stretched on and on. The other prayed briefly — a few concentrated words, and he was done.
Rabbi Eliezer's students were disturbed by the contrast. "Master," they said, pointing to the man who prayed briefly, "this man rushes through his prayer as if he cannot wait to finish." Rabbi Eliezer replied calmly: "His prayer is no shorter than the prayer of Moses."
When Moses's sister Miriam was struck with leprosy, Moses prayed the shortest prayer in all of Torah — just five Hebrew words: "El na, refa na la" — "Please, God, heal her, please" (Numbers 12:13). Five words. No elaboration, no lengthy petition. And God answered.
Then the students pointed to the man who had prayed at length. "And that man — he prays far too long!" Rabbi Eliezer replied: "His prayer is no longer than the prayer of Moses." After the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses threw himself before God and prayed for forty days and forty nights without ceasing (Deuteronomy 9:25). The longest recorded prayer in the entire Torah.
The same Moses — the greatest prophet — prayed both the shortest and the longest prayers in scripture. Neither length nor brevity determined whether God listened. What mattered was the sincerity of the heart behind the words.
From that day forward, Rabbi Eliezer's students understood: God does not measure prayer by the clock. He measures it by the soul.