Why are You Here? Truth, Comfort, and Religious Motivation

Looking around synagogue--particularly on Yom Kippur--we see some people who've come searching for God and we see those people who've come because they want to socialize. And we see ourselves judging those people. Dovid Bashevkin looks at why people seek religion, who is right, and what we can do when we're feeling judgey during the Days of Judgement.
Filmed at the William Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
Dovid Bashevkin, Director of Education for NCSY, studied in Ner Israel and completed his rabbinic ordination at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). While in Yeshiva University, he completed a Master's degree in Polish Hassidut, focused on the thought of Rav Zadok of Lublin, under the guidance of Dr. Yaakov Elman. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Public Policy and Management at The New School’s Milano School of International Affairs, focusing on crisis management. He also teaches a course a Yeshiva University about religious crisis. Recently, he published a rabbinic work entitled B’Rogez Rachem Tizkor (trans. In Anger, Remember Mercy), which is a discussion of sin and failure in Jewish thought and law. Dovid has been rejected from several prestigious fellowship and awards.