(Little Edit. We phrased this post asking for therian opinions, because we are animals. But on further thought, we'd like to explicitly ask for the opinions of any otherkin, nonhuman and alterhuman beings who want to share <3)
The past couple of months, we have been exploring Judaism. It's been interesting, fun and cozy so far. But we've also encountered multiple rubbing points. One of the main ones is that Judaism strikes us as a... very human religion, centred around humans, their connections to other humans, and their understanding of a very human god.
Weeeee (most of us) are not human. We are conceptually nowhere near humanity, not on the same fucking galaxy. We are still interested in exploring and learning about Judaism and the way we've come to approach it is by viewing it as a long conversation across millennia. We'd like to believe that because of our very different experiences, perhaps we have something to contribute to that conversation. We'd like to know if this contradiction in their identities is something any Jewish therians in here have had to grapple with, and we are curious what your conclusions have been :o
I'm not Jewish but I identify as otherkin and have been studying Judaism in detail for some time now.
From what I've seen, Judaism is a human-centred religion because it was formed from the beliefs of a Middle Eastern people group living at the crossroads of the known world. Their shared beliefs and cultural values evolved over the millennia into the forms we see today. You're right when you said it was like a "long conversation across millennia", because really, that's what it is. Judaism can be seen as the collective efforts of a people group to understand their place in the world and their relationship with their deity, and to live in a way that reflects the ethical teachings and wishes of their God as told through divinely-inspired individuals (aka prophets) and spiritual leaders. This is going a long way to say that Judaism is by its very nature human-centred.
Anyone regardless of their personal identity can choose to explore and practice Judaism. Being otherkin and being interested in Judaism (or any organized religion) isn't really a contradiction, but the human-centred nature of it is still grappling with.
