May 6, 1891 Sigmund Freud
Jacob Freud’s dedication in the family Bible, written to his son, Sigmund Freud, on his thirty-fifth birthday in May, 1891.
1. ‘Son who is dear to me, Shelomoh, [Jeremiah]
2. In the seventh in the days of your the years of your life [Genesis] the Spirit of the Lord began to move you [Judges]
3. and spoke within you: Go, read in my Book that I have written [Exodus]
4. and there will burst open for you the wellsprings of understanding, knowledge and wisdom. [18 Benedictions]
5. Behold, it is in the Book of Books, from which sages have excavated and
6. lawmakers learned [Numbers, Judges] knowledge and justice.
7. a vision of the Almighty did you see; (Numbers) you heard and strove to do, [Exodus]
8. and you soared upon the wings of the Spirit.
9. Since then the Book has been stored [Deuteronomy] like the fragments of the Tablets 10 in an ark [Babylonian Talmud] with me.
11. For the day on which your years were filled to five and thirty
12. I have put upon a cover of new skin [Numbers]
13. and have called it: “Spring up, O well, sing ye unto it!”[Numbers]
14. and I have presented it to you as a memorial [Exodus]
15. and as a reminder
[‘…the one and the other at once […] and we have, perhaps in the economy of these two words the whole of the archival law: anamnesis, mneme, hypomnema.’ Derrida Archives Fever.:23]
of love from your father,
16. who loves you with everlasting love. [Jeremiah] Jacob son of R’Sh[elomoh] Freid [sic]
17. In the capital city of Vienna 29 Nisan [5]651 6 May [1]891
( Freud’s Moses: 105)