Shaimos has holiness and should be put in proper
geniza or buried. The following categories are
listed in order of importance:
1. Holy Writings:
Handwritten parchments such as
Tefillin, Mezuzot, and
Megillah scrolls. These
items need to be double wrapped in plastic before being
placed in shaimos.
2. Words of Torah:
Printed or photocopied material:
Chumashim, Gemarot, commentaries of the Sages; Torah
articles
that aredistributed weekly; Parsha
sheets, homework which has Torah content. Anything with a
pasuk (Biblical verse) including wedding and bar or
bat mitzvah invitations or greeting cards which have entire
pesukim. Book cover that is removed from a holy book, or
other parts of a holy book.
3. Holy Objects:
Tefillin
straps, covers, and bags; Mezuzah wrappings and casings;
Torah mantels and sashes.
4. Mitzvah Objects:
Anything that was used for a
mitzvah, such as: Tallit, tzitzit, etrog,
shofar, lulav, gartel etc. There
are those who are careful to treat items
in this category as shaimos.
Not Shaimos:
Yarmulkas,
audio or video materials, computer disks, diagrams or pictures
without text.
