[Avodah] Parshas Behar (Bahar?)

[Mike Miller]

On 5/7/07, Zvi Lampel <hlampel at thejnet.com> wrote:
> >> Does anyone know the name of this week's Sedra is not changed from
> >> Behar to Bahar, for the same reasons that Bemidbar becomes Bamidbar?<<
>
> Hypothesis: The names of the parshios Be'har, Sh'mos and B'midbar were
> always (and still are) pronounced in their possesive form. The spelling
> "Bamidbar" with an "a" is a recent American or English rendition, the origin
> of which should be researched. (Any texts available by which to check this
> ?)

Interesting. I was always under the impression that Bamidbar was
actually correct (with a patach), as b'midbar sinai is grammatically
correct, but just b'midbar is missing a direct object (is that the
right grammatical term?), and thus it's changed to the definitive
bamidbar.

-- Mike Miller
Ramat Bet Shemesh