When 6 Degrees Becomes 1

by Shmuel Goldstein

In 1929, Frigyes Karinthy, a Hungarian author, penned a short story in which he wrote about the
idea of six degrees of separation. This is an idea where all living things in the world are six or
fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of "a friend of a friend" statements can be
made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. In the story below, you’ll see how
the six degrees of separation becomes one degree of connection.

Recently I experienced for the second time in my life, a major hurricane by the name of Irma.
As a category 5 monster, with its eyes focused on Miami and my community, and the
encouragement of a friend, I decided to make to necessary preparation to evacuate.
I attempted to fly out on Spirit Airlines to Philadelphia on a Thursday night (only days ahead of
getting hit), who then cancelled their flights for absolutely no good reason. I even saw a Spirit
plane landing at Fort Lauderdale airport the next morning!

So now being wiser, I ended up booking a flight to NY instead, this time on good ol’ reliable
JetBlue. Miraculously, I was able to get a flight where I could get out before Shabbos. I really
wasn’t prepared to spend potentially days in Miami without power.

So off to NY I went, thinking to myself… “There’s got to be some divine reason why I had to go
through a sudden change of plans from Philly to NY...I wonder what it could be?”

After spending a wonderful Shabbos with old family friends, I looked for ways to make the best
of my time in Brooklyn. I had noticed on Facebook that there was going to be an event called,
Rockomedy where there would be some Jewish comedians, food and music at Chabad Heights.
As it looked like a kosher venue where I might meet some interesting people, I went. Who
knows? Maybe I’ll find out why I’m here in NY!

At the variety show, one of the organizers who recognized me from Facebook, asked me a
peculiar question; “Why do you pay attention?” (I assumed it was pertaining to Facebook since
she complimented some of my interesting posts). I said to her, "Just to be aware (of what is
going on in the world and with others)." Afterwards, I realized that the best response would
have been "to find connections."

Even though I was wearing a modern shirt and leather jacket, people there still referred to me
as "Rabbi", go figure... Even amongst other hipsters, I guess I have that “rabbi” look. So after
enjoying a few acts, I decided to go downstairs, since one of the acts was not so appropriate for
me.

While downstairs sitting on the steps, a young guy comes to the gate, smiles at me for just a bit
longer than was socially common so I extended my hand to him and said, "Hi my name is
Shmuel Goldstein. What is your name?" He replied, "Yoel Avram Mikofsky".

Standing nearby was one of the percussionist from the bands that had played earlier that night.
He was getting ready to leave for the evening and was waiting on his bass player to get all the
equipment. When this percussionist heard the last name, he nonchalantly interjected and said,
“Hey, that's my last name too.”
Yoel Avram was at first somewhat skeptically inquisitive and started asking him some questions.
Where is your father from? ...Where was his father from? What city? When? Name? etc... As he
received one positive answer after another, his excitement heightened more. At one point, he
even called his mother to verify the name of the village that they came from. As he asked more
questions, his tone and expression grew and grew with warm emotion.

"You don't understand! We thought that all of our relatives had died in the war." I can't believe
this!!! This is amazing! As far as I know there are only 16 of us alive in this world!” , he
exclaimed with great elation.

He then gave him a great big hug as if embracing a long-lost brother.

l looked at them with a great feeling being a part of such a wonderful scene. Yoel Avram looked
at me with a sense of gratitude and said thanks. I then told them, “That is what my tribe does,
(being a kohein) we bring brothers together.

The Baal Shem Tov, whose birthday was

just this past Shabbos, said, " a soul may
descend from its place high in the heavens
down into this world for 70–80 years, just to
do a favor for another." By merely showing
friendliness towards a stranger by
introducing myself and asking this person's
name, it created a ripple effect of bringing
members of a long-lost family together.

Back in Florida, thank G-d, we were

incredibly fortunate that the hurricane
“decided” to take a shift in direction, some
say only 1 degree. I am equally thankful of
participating in bringing a “six degrees of separation” of two fellow Jews, to a one degree of
connection.
(Photos Right to Left: David Mikofsky & Joshua Yoel Avram Mikofsky)