Light is a double-edged metaphor. There is the light of enlightenment and the light of fire. In a terrible event that twists the gut and deeply saddens the soul even three years later, the fate of Rabbi Uriel Malka embodied light in both senses. His smile, his love of people, his love of G-d, his enthusiastic encouragement of everyone he met, his joie de vivre — that was one light. Then there was the other light, that terrible, opposite burning light of the flames in the Carmel forest fire in Israel that took his life on the first night of the Festival of Lights three years ago.
If ever there were someone whom one wishes to have spent more time with, when the time with him was to be had, it is Rabbi Uriel Malka. He was taken from us at the age of 32. He left behind a pregnant wife and many children. He left behind parents and siblings. He left behind many students, followers and admirers in Denver, where his outreaching spirit brought many to an idea: Let us begin, under Rabbi Malka’s leadership, a Sephardi minyan in Denver.
He nurtured this group — periodically, he came all the way from Israel to do so. He served as a leader for people who needed that Israeli origin, that Israeli connection and sensibility. Rabbi Malka the sabra provided it. This group now finds itself — duly, appropriately, kaleidoscopically diverse — in a relatively new shul in Denver, named, so appropriately, “Beit Uriel, the House of Uriel.”
Nothing can replace him or even approach him. But his good works and rare spirit can find their continuation in this fledgling effort in his name. We wish it well. And we wish to tell Rabbi Malka’s family and many friends: He is poignantly remembered.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
