Yesterday's homeschooling kashrus halacha (Jewish law) lesson and science lesson, combined in one, in unschooling fashion; in my opinion, how all learning should be done. The world and learning shouldn't be compartmentalized into different subjects, especially not between "secular/science" and Torah, because "science" helps our understanding of halacha.So, what exactly was the lesson and how did it come about?
Rafi (5) asked me why the chicken skins (crackings/gribines) left from making my shmaltz (rendered chicken fat) were so salty.
To answer him, we did an experiment.
Took a DRY bowl, and ensured there was no water in it. Took a cucumber, dried it off, then sliced it up. Put it in the bowl, ensuring there was no water. Sprinkled salt liberally onto it. Set it aside for a little bit.
After half an hour, we saw how much water was in the bowl that wasn't there beforehand. Rafi wanted to know how the water got there, and where the salt went, and if the salt melted. I corrected him, and taught him about osmosis and why the water came out of the cucumbers. (At a level that he could understand at his age.)
I then said that blood isn't kosher, and asked Rafi what he thought would happen if you put salt on a chicken, and he said "the blood would come out to be with the salt". I said he was right, and said that that's why you put salt on it, so the blood would come out and the animal would be kosher. So he said "but some times there is blood in the chicken when you cook it", so I explained to him the different types of blood in regards to kosher laws, how dam hanefesh, the blood that comes out when you shecht (slaughter) the animal is 100% forbidden, and then blood that is left- dam ha'eivarim- is divided into two categories- you salt it, and the blood that comes out (dam hanifrash) is not kosher, and the blood that is left inside after salting it is kosher.
Lesson to be continued- what happens when you put sugar on cucumbers? Flour? Sesame seeds? And other osmosis related lessons. If he wants to learn that.
