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An excerpt:
The Talmud (Berachos 34a) relates that one of Rabbi Eliezer’s students led their congregation for an unusually long prayer session. When his peers complained, the good rabbi referred them to Moshe’s (Moses) 40 day-long prayer after Israel’s sin of the Golden Calf:
“Did your friend pray longer than Moshe?”
Another day, a different student led an unusually short prayer. Again the peers complained, and again the good rabbi referred them to Moshe, this time to his 5-word prayer for his sister Miriam – “Please God, please heal her!” – when she was struck by tzara’as (a skin condition caused by spiritual shortcomings):
“Did your friend pray shorter than Moshe?”
Both biblical prayers were said in response to trouble, and Rabbi Eliezer taught that we can adopt either of them. Length is external; what matters is intention and feeling.
The Mishnah (Menachos 13:11) summed this up with the famous adage:
Whether he does a lot, whether he does a little, as long as he focuses his heart on heaven.