Ever since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, the gates to heaven are closed.

Except one set of gates.  The gates of tears.  They have never closed.

Now, what does that mean? You get some tears on your cheeks and you’re guaranteed an answer?

When does a person cry? When he really feels it. When he’s really moved. When it hurts. When it’s sincere and genuine.

Tefillah has to be for real, and then it’s tefillah, and then it goes straight in, and then it’s accepted.

The gates of tears, the doors that stand before tefillos offered from a place of complete and total sincerity, they are the ones that are wide open.

~ Rav Gav