<html><head></head><body>Mon, 7 May 2007 "Mike Miller" <A href="mailto:avodah@mikeage.net">avodah@mikeage.net</A> wrote: <BR><BR>On 5/7/07, Zvi Lampel <hlampel@thejnet.com> wrote:<BR>> >> Does anyone know the name of this week's Sedra is not changed from<BR>> >> Behar to Bahar, for the same reasons that Bemidbar becomes Bamidbar?<<<BR>><BR>>> Hypothesis: The names of the parshios Be'har, Sh'mos and B'midbar were<BR>> always (and still are) pronounced in their possesive form. The spelling<BR>> "Bamidbar" with an "a" is a recent American or English rendition, the origin<BR>> of which should be researched. (Any texts available by which to check this<BR>> ?)<<<BR><BR>>Interesting. I was always under the impression that Bamidbar was<BR>actually correct (with a patach), as b'midbar sinai is grammatically<BR>correct, but just b'midbar is missing a direct object (is that the<BR>right grammatical term?), and thus it's changed to the definitive<BR>bamidbar.<<BR><BR>Checked it out in the Concordancia, and any and every time (about 25 times, to be pedantic) "B_Midbar" is modified by the name of a desert, it's B'Midbar, not BA-Midbar. The only time it's "BA-midar" (when the word is not standing alone) is in the passage "BaMidbar HaGadol HaZeh." <BR><br></body></html>