"The great Tzadikim in Heaven do not pray for the community.
They can no longer relate seriously to the frivolous requests of men.
God, however, who is Infinite, makes no such distinction;
He hears all men equally.
What is more, there is no before or after in God, no distinction of time or place, size or value.
This means that causality, as men know it, does not necessarily correspond to the true process and cycles of existence".
--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From "Hiddenness as a Part of Unity" p. 139 in The Long Shorter Way by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
