Kashering Gebrokts Utensils?

Ask the Rov: Do utensils used for gebrokts need to be kashered for the next year?

By Rabbi Chaim Hillel Raskin – Rov of Anash in Petach Tikvah

Minhag Chabad is to scrupulously avoid gebrokts until the last day, but then eat gebrokts on Acharon shel Pesach, based on a teshuva of the Alter Rebbe (see issue 403).¹

If Pesach utensils were to become gebrokts, we would avoid using those utensils on Pesach.² How, then, can the utensils used on Acharon shel Pesach be used next year for the beginning of Pesach? While some have designated utensils for gebrokts,³ the common minhag is to use the regular utensils.

When a utensil actually becomes treif, some poskim hold that after twelve months pass, the absorption in the utensil is considered nonexistent.⁴ Without a taste to transmit , this utensil no longer has the ability to prohibit food cooked in it.⁵

Based on this, some poskim allow using such a utensil after twelve months have passed with several conditions:

(1) nothing at all was used in the utensil throughout the entire year (since cooking anything could “freshen” the forbidden taste); (2) to work for Pesach, the twelve months must conclude before Pesach; (3) some hold one cannot allow it l’chatchila. Yet, since other poskim disagree with this leniency, it’s only relied on in cases of significant loss.⁶

When it comes to chumros like gebrokts, which is a concern for chometz but not actual chometz, there is sufficient basis to rely on the passing of twelve months even l’chatchila.

When utensils are used on Acharon shel Pesach for gebrokts, there are usually less than a full twelve months until the start of the following Pesach. Some therefore only allow using them the following year without kashering during a leap year when a full twelve months pass before Pesach. However, Minhag Chabad is to consider the twelve months minus a week as a year for this purpose.⁷

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From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash