Sometimes, there are people who don’t know how to press the red button. For example, if a person comes with no humility, only with entitlement and with complaints about how he deserves more from the Ribbono shel Olam...this isn’t called tefillah...it isn’t called knowing how to press that button. This person doesn’t understand that there is a Creator of the world, and that he is the creation.
But if a person does know how to press the button... if he comes with humility and brokenness and cries out from the depths—his tefillah will be listened to, just as Hashem listened to the tefillah of Menashe HaMelech, who sinned and caused others to sin. In fact, Chazal tell us that Hashem created Menashe solely for this reason: to illustrate that He listens to the tefillah of even the greatest sinner—no tefillah is ever pushed away. One may ask, where did Menashe find the temerity to daven? Who allowed him into the chambers of the King?! The answer is that it was his neshamah that davened!
The Tiferes Shlomo teaches us that we must know what we have inside us. If you will look at yourself with an external view, the way you view yourself... the way others look at you... you will get stuck. Let go of these thoughts! Pause of a moment and meditate: From the outside, it’s terrible. It is impossible to approach the Ribbono shel Olam in such a way. You won’t be allowed through the door! But inside, there’s a red button. If one comes with humility, and the understanding that his neshamah is approaching the Aibishter, and he asks for help, Hashem will surely listen to him, for he is the פה כל תפילת שומע.
