The Shortest Prayer

I have a private WhatsApp chat with G-d. 

I'm not saying this to brag about frumkeit or anything. I don't always remember to come to Him with everything, and He's often my last resort when things just feel unbearable.

But either way, it brings me comfort to connect with Him and I needed an easy breezy way to do that. Like a friend. A mentor. A guide.

I started working with someone last week to help me get clear on my magic. Like what is it exactly that I do? (A lot of seemingly unrelated things that really become one integrated experience. But how to even explain the deep shifts on a body and soul level that people are walking away with?)

While there are certainly many layers involved that makes my work transformative, I asked her in a half-joking tone, though not joking at all – who said it's not the tiny prayers I send up before getting on a call? Before hitting record on the insane breathwork practices I've been sharing these last two weeks in Regulate With Your Cycle?

G-d, help this come out right.

Let me be a channel for Your wisdom.

I'm lost without You. Please don't leave me!

Which brings me to a very potent - very short - verse in this week’s parsha.

In fact, it’s the shortest prayer found anywhere in the Torah. 

Somehow these 5 words, made of only 11 letters, express the heart and essence of a prayer.

.א-ל נא רפא נא לה

Please G-d, heal her please!

(Bamidbar 12:13)

This was Moshe's prayer for his sister, Miriam, when she had tzora’as in the desert.

You would think the man who spoke with his Creator face-to-face would at least have more to say on his sister’s behalf. Why the sparse words?

Sometimes less is more.

When the channel is open and you feel it, a prayer doesn't have to be long.

It doesn't have to be scripted.

It can be in any language.

It’s the language of the heart.

It doesn't even need to be spoken. It can be a few deep breaths.

It can be a felt sensation of being held.

Many of us grew up with a concept of prayer that’s far removed, that’s complicated. And don’t even get me started on the concepts of G-d we grew up with. Angry, white-bearded man in the sky? Even the classic portrayal of Father and King can be hard to connect to for some.

But what if G-d is also the One who whispers back when you send a voice note in the middle of a messy day?

The One who hears the sighs you don’t even know you’re releasing?

This week’s parsha, Beha’aloscha, is full of noise – complaints, cravings, chaos. The people are restless, Moshe is overwhelmed, and even Miriam and Aharon falter.

Yet, in the midst of all this, Moshe’s five-word plea stands out. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s relational.

It reminds us that prayer isn’t about perfection.

It’s about presence.

This is what women are rediscovering in Regulate With Your Cycle*.

Through the breath, through the body, through the cycle, we're invited into more presence. (You've already heard this from me: Presence and Shechinah are the same thing in different languages.)

Women feeling held – not by something out there, but from within.

In the breath. In the body. In the rhythm of their own cycle. 

Imagine pausing in the middle of an ordinary day and feeling, maybe for the first time, that you're not alone in your own body.

This is the Presence. The Shechinah.

Not far off in the sky, but here – in your breath, in your body, holding you from the inside.

And every bleed, every breath, every ovulation – these are prayers too.

So when you don’t have the words, when it feels too much or too out of reach…

Maybe just five words will do.

.א-ל נא רפא נא לה  

Please, G-d, heal her please.

* Regulate With Your Cycle is a 30-day challenge connecting to our breath, body, and cycle. It's given over WhatsApp (with a Google Drive option if you don't have WhatsApp). We're already moving through it together, and there's room for you.

It's $33 to join through June 11. After that it goes up to $55.

Come breathe with us. Cycle with us. Feel the Presence.

Join here for just $33