The genizah requirement applies to all writings that contain any of the names of God. When these items reach the end of their usable life, they must be discarded without destroying God’s name by one’s own hand, and left to disintegrate naturally.
It was customary to place damaged religious scrolls, prayer books and other ritual items in a synagogue attic – an enclosed, publicly inaccessible space where ‘sacred trash’ could slowly decompose.
According to Talmudic literature, religious Jews should be protected not only from damaged canonical texts, but also from apocryphal, non-original, and fake texts. These all require genizah.
Words derived from the root ‘GNZ’ in biblical texts refer to the preservation of treasures, such as expensive garments and other valuables, or to the storing of items with the aim of preventing their desecration.