Shalom Aleichem!
This Sunday is the holiday of Lag BaOmer, a joyous day on the Jewish calendar, marking the passing of the great sage and Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (2nd cent.), as well as the conclusion of a devastating plague which ravaged the students of Rabbi Akiva (ca.50-135 CE). It also makes me think of eating tacos with a fork. Before you click “delete,” let me explain:
I don’t mean to bore you with the Wertheimer family culinary adventures, but we had tacos for dinner one day this week. My soon-to-be-three-year-old Sruli sat with his taco, confidently trying to eat it with a fork. He had a look on his face which said, “I am extremely determined, and will accomplish what I have set out to do.” 
The rest of us were quite amused at the sight.
There’s a time and place for everything, as they say. A taco ain’t the time or the place for a fork.
The connection: There was a great Kabbalist who was known to recite the mournful prayer, normally reserved for Tisha B’Av (the day of mourning the destruction of the Temples), every day of the year. One time, after reciting it on LagBaOmer, he was visited by the soul of Rabbi Shimon, who had instructed on the day of his passing that that day, and its anniversary every year, be a day of rejoicing. Rabbi Shimon had then challenged this pietist: “How dare you mourn on this joyous day?!” For on a yahrtzeit, the annual anniversary of a person’s passing, and especially the passing of a righteous person, that person’s soul ascends to even greater heights in its perception of G-d.
Lag BaOmer is therefore a day of happiness and joy! So on this day (and on other days, too!), fan the flame of internal happiness and you will ignite others, as well! Share a smile of joy with another, and — like fire — you will give without losing anything.
Be happy just because you’re here. It’s contagious!
L’chaim!
Shaul
