gbroks
Question
Now that is a classic! So the less source for a custom, the more significant? Can I quote you on that?>> It is black and white in Sefer Ha'hodaah. Look it up. Note, please, that the author, Eliyahu Kitov, is not saying this. He is quoting someone who did say this for the purpose of mocking him. Do you agree with the Sefer Ha'Hodaah? Ie: Do you agree that g'broks has no foundation?
Answer
Answered by Aaron AbadiI'm joining him in this mocking. Gebrocks has a basis in a situation where they use thick Matzah. Flour that is baked in the oven cannot rise and thus can no longer become Chametz. If you bake a loaf of bread that you did not allow it to rise, and there was a small pocket or bubble inside of flour, that flour shouldn't be able to rise. The Gebrocks restriction was a somewhat reasonable restriction in such a case, of a bread two inches thick, where we are afraid that since the flour pocket is deep inside the bread, maybe it didn't get enough of a baking to render it non-riseable. Our Matzot today, even the thicker soft Matzot, are too thin to ever present a problem. If the Matzah was baked enough to be Kosher for Pesach, then any possible little pockets of flour within is certainly baked enough to not be able to rise. Everything needs to be understood in order to determine its application. That is the job of qualified Rabbis. There are some sources for Gebrocks, but only as I described above. Gemara Pesachim 39:B says that baked flour cannot become Chametz. Shaarei Teshuva Orach Chaim #460:10 is a good start for the rest of the issue. AA