Thirty Years in the Same Pew

Solomon sat in the same seat in the synagogue for as long as anyone could remember. You could set your watch by him, which was appropriate. He arrived before anyone else, he stayed after most had left, and in between he was absolutely present — not performatively devout, but genuinely elsewhere. I have sat near him for twenty years and I never saw him distracted. It was instructive simply to be in his presence.