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metabolism. He contributed, with G. Schmidt, to Handbuch
der biologischen Arbeitsmethoden (1921–39) and edited, with
others, Handbuch der normalen undpathologischen Physiologie
(6 vols., 1925–29).
[George H. Fried]
EMBER, AARON (1878–1926), U.S. Orientalist and Egyptologist.
Born in Kovno, Lithuania, Ember migrated to the U.S.
in 1891. From 1904 to 1910 he worked as a fellow of Semitics
at Johns Hopkins University and from 1911 was assistant professor
(professor 1924) in its Semitics department. His studies
in Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, Arabic, and Ethiopic led him
to seek an earlier form of proto-Semitic in Egyptian, which
he came to regard as the oldest Semitic language. He died as
a result of a fire in his house in which his wife and child also
perished. His papers, which were partially destroyed, were
partly published by Cyrus Adler in the Paul Haupt Anniversary
Volume (1926), in a chapter entitled “Partial Assimilation
in Old Egyptian” (pp. 300–12), where Ember discussed the
phonological relationship of Egyptian to Semitic languages
and his theory that abstract terms developed from a concrete
basis. The book also includes a biographical sketch of Ember.
In 1930 a manuscript that survived the fire was published as
A. Ember, Egypto-Semitic Studies. Its publication was due in
large part to the efforts of Ember’s former teacher, the great
Egyptologist Kurt Sethe of Berlin. Ember took an active part
in the Jewish community of Baltimore. For many years he was
a director of the Baltimore Talmud Torah and of the Isaac Davidson
School and helped to found the Jewish Public Library
there. He was also an ardent Zionist and assisted the Hebrew
University Library, Jerusalem.
Bibliography: H. Loewe, Aaron Ember (Ger., 1926); K.
Sethe, in: Zeitschrift fuer aegyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 4
(1926), 130–1. Add. Bibliography: O. Sellers, in: AJSL, 50 (1934),
109–10.
EMBRYO (Heb. רָ ּבֻ ע, ubbar), a child in the womb of its mother
before its head emerges (Sanh. 72b; Sh. Ar., ḤM 425:2), the Hebrew
ubbar meaning the unborn child in both the embryonic
and fetal stages. Generally speaking, an embryo is incapable of
having legal rights or duties, although there are various rules
intended to protect its rights when born, and to prevent uncertainty
with regard to its status.
Determining the Identity of the Embryo
A widow or divorced woman must not remarry until 90 days
after the death of her husband or after her divorce (Sh. Ar., EH
13:1; see *Marriages, Prohibited). The reason for this prohibition
is to remove any doubt should she immediately become
pregnant from her second husband, as to whether the child
she bears is a nine-month child of the first, or a seven-month
child of the second, a doubt which might seriously affect its
personal status (Yev. 41a–42a; and Codes).
Mother or Embryo
Who Takes Precedence? On the question of whether an em-
embryo
bryo may be killed in order to save its mother in the case of a
difficult confinement, see *Abortion.
Parentage
Generally, the same laws that apply in determining the parentage
of a born child and the capacity of the mother or her
husband to deprive it of its status apply to the embryo; see
*Mamzer; Parent and *Child.
Levirate Marriage or Ḥliẓah of a Pregnant Woman
If a woman was pregnant when her husband died and the
child is subsequently born alive, she is exempt from levirate
marriage or ḥaliẓah (Sh. Ar., EH 156:4; see *Levirate Marriage
and Ḥaliẓah).
Proselytization
For the status of a child born after its mother became a proselyte
while pregnant with it see *Proselyte.
Succession
An embryo is incapable of acquiring rights, for only a person
born can possess rights. Accordingly, if an embryo dies in
its mother’s womb, it does not leave the right of succession,
to which it would have been entitled had it been alive when
the deceased died, to those who would have been its heirs
had it been born alive when the deceased died. Instead, such
right of succession passes to the heirs of the deceased as if
the embryo had never existed (BB 142a; Nid. 44a; and Codes,
Rif to Yev. 67a). There is a contrary opinion, however, to the
effect that intestate succession being automatic, the embryo
does acquire it (Piskei ha-Rosh to Yev. 67a; see Tur, ḥM 210).
All agree, however, that a child born alive after the death
of its father inherits its father as though it had been alive
when he died (Rif, Ritba, to Yev. 67a, Beit Yosef and Bah to Tur
and Sh. Ar. loc. cit.; see Ḥiddushei Ḥayyim ha-Levi to Yad,
Terumot 8:4). Hence, an embryo that is born after the death
of the deceased, even if it dies the day it is born, leaves the
right of succession (after its mother) to its heirs on its father’s
side, but not to those on its mother’s side – who would have
inherited had the embryo died in her womb (Tur and Sh.
Ar., ḥM 276:5). Only in respect of the special rights due to a
firstborn son is a child born after the death of his father not
of equal status with one already born when the father dies.
Thus, if twins are born, the first one will not be entitled to
the additional share in the father’s estate due to the firstborn
(see *Firstborn), since the Torah states of the primogenitary
right, “If they have borne him children …” (Deut. 21:15), i.e.,
only a firstborn alive when the father dies, but not an embryo,
is entitled to the (additional) primogenitary share (BB
142b, and Codes).
A will in favor of the embryo of another has no validity,
even if the embryo is born alive, since no rights can be conferred
upon one not yet born (BB 141b–142; Piskei ha-Rosh to
Yev. 67a; Sh. Ar., ḥM 210:1). However, when a man whose wife
is pregnant makes a will in favor of his own embryo whether
it be a will of a person being on his deathbed (shekhiv me-ra)
or of a person regarded as being in health (bari) (see *Wills) –
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 391