Some people have the custom of not eating gebrokht throughout Passover. What is gebrokht?

Again, we will need an introduction to understand the answer. Jewish law accepts as axiomatic that once dough has been baked into matzah, it can no longer ferment. There is therefore no prohibition against taking matzah and grinding it into flour to be used as matzah meal, or to soak this meal in water, for it cannot ferment. It is that rule which enables one, for example, to make kneidlach - matzah meal dumplings, which are served in chicken soup - on Passover, or to make Passover cakes out of matzah meal. Some communities, though, have a custom which forbids allowing matzah to come into contact with water, for fear that some of the dough was not baked through and the addition of water may make that dough ferment. Now we can finally answer what gebrokht is. The word itself simply means "broken," but it is a type of code name for matzah which has been "broken down" to be mixed with water. Thus, if we say that a person does not eat gebrokht on Passover, we mean that he will not eat anything made out of matzah meal or made by soaking matzah in water. We do stress, though, that this custom is a stringency above and beyond the requirements of Jewish law. Oh, in case you should ask: people who don't eat gebrokht on Passover use substitutes for making cakes, such as almond paste or potato flour (potato flour is permitted, as the potato is not one of the five species of grain which are deemed capable of fermenting).

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