Geniza Desecration
Mythic Historical - This post describes a real practice, and an imagined way in which Hermetic Wizards would be inspired to be in conflict with Jews.
In Jewish theology Hashem has many names, all of which must be dealt with respectfully. The most holy of these is his four letter name, but he has many others as well. The forty two initials of the Ana b’Koach prayer, for instance, are another name of Hashem. Writing these names down is a necessary part of Jewish practice, both in the creation of Torahs, tefillin, mezuzot, prayer books, and in texts discussing the Divine. But, once written, the parchment used to record these names acquires a holy status itself. When the parchment decays and eventually needs to be disposed of, this presents a problem.
These texts must be buried in a Jewish ceremony, and should be treated with the same respect that is due to a deceased person. But the process of burying a text is sufficiently difficult, requiring a trip outside the city among other things, that a temporary holding place for holy texts is needed. That place is a geniza.
The geniza is a clean dry place where texts can be placed while they are awaiting burial. A closet or chest is generally sufficient for this purpose. A community might have one geniza or several, and it is typically located in a synagogue or in the beit midrash. The most famous geniza is the cairo geniza, which preserves thousands of texts over the course of hundreds of years, including many from the period of Ars Magica.
A geniza may not be cleared out and its texts properly disposed of for a year or more, sometimes a decade or more. This can lead to many texts accumulating in the geniza through inaction.
These holy texts are a magnet for demons who wish to desecrate the divine name. This is a favorite pastime of Shedim, demonic corruptors of the Jewish tradition. The Shed cannot enter the synagogue where the geniza is, its Divine Aura is too powerful, but he can trick a human to do it for him. Once his mark has brought him the holy texts he can desecrate them by covering them in excrement, blood, or other impure substances. Infernal vis is a byproduct of this desecration, which the Shed can share with their mark, tempting them to steal more holy texts from the geniza.
Vis Source - Geniza Texts
Another magus approaches the covenant, looking to make a deal. He has discovered a technique for refining the cast off texts accumulated by the local Jewish community into raw Mentem vis. The intense focus of Jewish study, he explains, causes the texts to pick up a flavor useful in Hermetic Magic, with the right refinement. Conveniently the Jews collect these texts into a central location, a geniza, when they are done with them. There is no Jewish community near his covenant, so he proposes a deal: the covenant will collect several texts every year, deliver them to him via Redcap, and he will refine them into vis and return half the refined vis back to the covenant as payment. The refined vis has the form of small scraps of parchment, freshly scraped and perfectly blank. (See COV5 page 72 for recommendation on how much vis this source might give in your saga).
Story Seed - Chicken Feet
The vis source is, of course, the work of a Shed. Hopefully this is not obvious to your covenant. The Shed in question goes by the name Mischit, and his plan works as follows. Mischt can take the form of another person, so he adopts the form of the magus who first approaches the covenant to make the deal. Mischt does not have the strength (or courage) to enter the covenant’s Aegis, so he makes this deal outside the covenant. Once the deal is made he relies on the Redcaps - he waylays the Redcap carrying the holy texts, erases his memory that he is carrying them, and takes the texts. He then corrupts the texts and turns them into Infernal Vis. When the Redcap returns he waylays them again, this time implanting the memory of handing the texts over getting the parchment vis in return. He places the vis in the Redcap’s bag, and sends them on their way. This plan has enough moving parts that it is unlikely to last for long - the Redcap may recover some memories, the true magus may be approached by a magus from the covenant and be very confused about this deal he knows nothing about, or something else entirely. Mischt, like all Shedim, is discoverable by looking at his feet - while he can perfectly mimic a target in appearance his feet are always the clawed feet of a chicken.
Story Seed - The Outraged Jews
A side benefit of Mischit’s plan is that it will greatly upset the Jewish community. When outlining the deal the disguised Mischt explains that the texts he wants are discarded by the Jews, they won’t miss them. It is true that they have been discarded, but the covenant full of non-Jews won’t realize that the Jews actually still consider the texts to be holy. When the Shamash, the man who maintains the syanaogue, discovers that many of the texts in the geniza are gone the community will be alerted and will be on the lookout for intrusions. Their investigations will lead them to the covenant’s doors. What will the covenant do when confronted by angry Jews demanding the return of their holy texts?