In Honor of Our Guests

A chassid used to daven at great length, in a manner that displeased Rav Zev Wolf. The Rav asked him whether he davened this long even when he was entertaining guests, or whether he then shortened his tefillah. The chassid answered that he did not shorten it at all. Rav Zev Wolf asked why not, and then explained. The prohibition against eating before davening is derived from the pasuk, "Do not eat on the blood," read as "do not eat before praying over your own blood." With regard to the law of blood, meat must be salted for an hour, yet if there are guests, the law allows the time to be shortened to the time it takes to walk one mil. If the Sages were lenient with the law of blood for the sake of guests, then surely for the sake of guests we should be lenient here too and shorten our tefillah.