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However, the religious atmosphere in the Freuds’ home was consistent with the liberal or Reform Judaism of 19th-century Vienna.
Jakob and Amalia were married by Isaac Noah Mannheimer, a leading rabbi of the Reform Movement.14 In addition,
the Philippson Bible (Old Testament) (see Figure 2-1) that Jakob Inscribed for his son on the occasion of Sigmund’s 35th
birthday was translated and edited by a leading scholar of the Reform Movement, Ludwig Philippson. (Freud became familiar
with this Bible very early, and its great importance is discussed later.) Jakob inscribed this Bible as follows (in Hebrew,
even though Sigmund was unable to read that language)15:
My dear Son, It was in the seventh year of your age that the spirit of God began to move you to learning. I would say the spirit of God speaketh to you: “Read in my Book; there will be opened to thee sources of knowledge and of the intellect.” It is the Book of Books; it is the well that wise men have digged and from which lawgivers have drawn the waters of their knowledge. 
Figure 2-1. Moses; from the Philippson Bible frontispiece. |