Based on Rabbi Evan Hoffman
Miriam was afflicted with leprosy as punishment for slandering her brother Moses. Aaron -- who also participated in the evil speech about his brother, yet was spared the brunt of God’s wrath – begged Moses to look beyond their sinful behavior and petition God for Miriam’s physical recovery. Moses complied, crying out, “Heal her now, O G-d, I beseech Thee ל נא רפא נא לה-א (Bemidbar 12:13).”
Moses’ prayer is terse. It is five words; four of them have only two letters. Notably, Miriam’s name is absent from the petition. One might infer from this that perhaps Moses was angry with his siblings and only reluctantly offered a paltry petition. Yet the text seems to imply otherwise. While the Bible states that God’s anger was kindled against Aaron and Miriam (12:9), there is no mention of Moses’ emotional reaction to having been maligned. The several other Biblical episodes in which the honor of Moses is affronted show us an Israelite leader who is unconcerned with pride. Indeed, Scripture famously asserts that “The man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were on the face of the earth (12:3).
The sages did not consider Moses’ entreaty to be inadequate. Rather, they viewed it as the model for acceptably brief prayer. When one of the disciples of Rabbi Eliezer criticized his classmate’s rendering of the liturgy as too short, Rabbi Eliezer responded by noting that that classmate had not been nearly as terse as Moses כלום מקצר יותר ממשה רבינו (Berkahot 34a). [Rabbi Eliezer also defended those who offered lengthy prayers, noting that Moses once petitioned God for forty days without interruption (Deuteronomy 9:25). Rabbi Eliezer was a staunch advocate of spontaneity in prayer, even to the point of wild fluctuations in the length of the service. In his view, leaching vitality from prayer through dull consistency was to be avoided העושה תפילתו קבע אין תפילתו תחנונים (Mishnah Berakhot 4:4).]
The Midrash suggests three possible reasons for the brevity of Moses’ petition (Sifre Numbers 105):
(1) Moses was not really praying to the Almighty. His words were, as it were, in the nature of an “order” that God heal Miriam לא זהו משה שמתפלל והמקום שומע תפילתו. This approach is not convincing. It fails to take into account the obvious, and undeniable, petitionary essence of the prayer. The double use of the word נא, please, makes this transparent. A more profound objection is, of course, that, under conventional notions of theology, an omnipotent Deity cannot be coerced into a particular course of action through human command or direction. Otherwise, He would not be omnipotent, which means, in turn, that He would not be God.
And yet the Talmud quotes Job, “Though shall you also decree a thing and it shall be established unto you (22:28),” to support the radical notion that a righteous person can guarantee the fulfillment of his own wishes צדיק ודאי שגזירתך מתקיימת (Sotah 12a). It is reasoned that if a person regularly subordinates his will to that of the Divine, then, under special circumstances, God will, in recognition of that, sometimes nullify His own plans in favor of the wishes of his loyal servant אם עשית רצוני אף אני אעשה רצונך יותר משלי (Tanhuma Vayishlach 10). Counter-examples abide, however. One is the unsuccessful negotiations Abraham conducted with God over the fate of Sodom. A second is the rejection of Moses’ repeated requests to be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that Rashi omits the theologically shaky explanation in Sotah from his commentary, even while citing the other two Midrashic interpretations.
(2) Moses offered a brief prayer on behalf of his sister lest some cynical people complain that he showed preference to family members שלא יהיו ישראל אומרים מפני שהיא אחותו הוא מרבה בתפילה. The power structure in which Moses was de facto king, his brother High Priest, his nephews priests, and his cousins carriers of the sacred vessels exposed Moses to obvious charges of nepotism. It was precisely this objection that precipitated Korach’s rebellion (Numbers 16:3). The Midrash records how Korach contrasted his own embarrassing Levite initiation ritual with the glorious raiment and priestly emoluments bestowed upon Aaron (Numbers Rabbah 18). The charges of nepotism would be quelled only after Aaron’s staff miraculously issued forth almond blossoms (Number 17:23). It was then clear that all honorific positions in Israel were determined not by Moses, but by God. Thitherto, however, and while the suspicion of favoritism threatened to sully his reputation, Moses had to be cautious in handling relatives. Even the slightest hint of impropriety was to be avoided, so that Moses might find favor “in the sight of God and man בעיני אלוקים ואדם (Proverbs 3:4).” Thus, his prayer for the health and wellbeing of his beloved sister Miriam had to be scaled down so that he would remain “clean before God and Israel והייתם נקיים מ -יי ומישראל (Numbers 32:22).”
(3) Moses curtailed his plea for Divine intervention on behalf of Miriam lest some people criticize him for overindulging in prayer while his sister was suffering שלא יהו ישראל אומרים אחותו שרויה בצער והוא עומד ומרבה בתפלה. This should not be seen as a concession to those who would (heretically) deny the efficacy of prayer. Instead, even among the truly faithful, it is recognized that some moments are well-suited for lengthy supplication and communion with God, while others are not יש שעה להאריך ויש שעה לקצר (Mekhiltad’Rabbi Ishmael, Beshalach 3).
In the midst of an immediate crisis, with life and death at stake, prayer should be swift. Action must trump words. At the Sea of Reeds, with the Israelites trapped between the water and the Egyptian onslaught, Moses turned to God with a request for salvation. God preempted Moses and said, “Why do you cry unto for me; speak unto the Children of Israel and have them go forward (Exodus 14:15).”
God, being omniscient בוחן לבבות, knows the inner thoughts of man. Accordingly, vocalized prayer would be superfluous were its primary purpose to inform God about our hopes and wishes. Prayer is, rather, an opportunity for the supplicant to formulate, in the sight of God, an honest reckoning of his priorities and dreams. For some, it takes a lengthy liturgy to achieve this goal. For others, it can be accomplished more quickly. Moses, the loving brother, meek soul, and courageous defender of Israel, needed only a few words to convince himself of the sincerity of his petition.
Would that our own service of the heart -- involving page after page of recitation, from a printed Siddur, of a heavily edited and redacted, and chronologically and stylistically diverse set of materials -- had even a fraction of the power of Moses’ short cry.
