The new Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center contains within it a small piece of the original bridge between the US and Canada. Built in 1855 it was the first railroad suspension bridge in the world, spanning 825 feet, it connected Niagara Falls, New York, with Niagara Falls, Ontario. The bridge was not only essential for commerce between the two countries, but in providing fugitive slaves a gateway to freedom. On the bridge in the museum there is a line drawn in the middle, on one side it says slavery, on the other freedom. So often these fugitive slaves, who may have been living in freedom for decades, had to run for their lives fleeing the bondsman that sought to bring them back to slave owners down south.
At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan, Moses feels himself on the precipice between slavery and freedom, life and death. After all these years wandering in the wilderness, he has been denied his final request to make it into the Promised Land. “Let me now cross and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan,” he begs God at the beginning of the portion. But, all he is offered instead, is an opportunity to see the future home of our people from a distance. “Do not continue to speak to Me further about this matter,” God commands him. Freedom so close is denied to Moses.
Moses, unlike the fugitive slaves that once inhabited our region, will not have to return to Egypt. He dies in almost every respect a free person, able to worship and conduct his life in the way he so desires. The Underground Railroad Heritage Center reminds us countless lives lived in anonymity during this horrific period in our national story. They understood Moses predicament far better than I ever could. On my desk at Shir Shalom sits a new burgundy coffee cup, with the name “John Morrison” written in capital letters. Part African American, part Cherokee, he was the head waiter at the Cataract House in Niagara Falls in the mid-19thCentury. There he oversaw a staff made up of other mainly fugitive slaves who helped give safe passage way to hundreds if not thousands of enslaved people in their escape to freedom. This unsung hero, like Moses, never made it to the Promised Land, putting the needs of the many before his own.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex
p.s. – for more information about the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center go to their website – http://niagarafallsundergroundrailroad.org