The six men stood facing each other, forming a circle just inside the entrance to the hotel conference room.
Five of the men had met in previous years, though never as part of a religious circumstance. They exchanged pleasantries and introduced themselves to the newcomer. The sixth man was not Jewish – “Nobody’s perfect,” someone joked – but he fit in easily with the rest of the group.
They waited a few minutes, making small talk about the speakers they had heard earlier in the day and comparing notes about family situations. They discussed how many years each had been writing and when they first began coming to the conference. When it became apparent that no one else would be joining them, one of the men lifted the glass of wine from the nearby table and the men fell silent.
“Shabbat shalom,”1 he said with a smile.