[Mesorah] Bemidbar or Bamidbar? A proof name

[Zev Sero via Mesorah]

To expand on what I wrote yesterday, I think that discussing what a
sedra's short title "should" be is exactly like discussing on what daf
a line of gemara "should" be.  Each line is on whichever daf it is because
that's where the printer put it, and each sedra has the title it does
because that's what people call it. Therefore whichever pronunciation
people use for these titles *is* the correct one.

By way of example, the name of Charon, the Styx ferryman in Greek mythology,
is pronounced in English like "carin'", but Pluto's companion Charon is
pronounced "Sharon", because its discoverer named it that way in honour of
his wife Charlene.

-- 
Zev Sero               Meaningless combinations of words do not acquire
zev at sero.name          meaning merely by appending them to the two other
                        words `God can'.  Nonsense remains nonsense, even
                        when we talk it about God.   -- C S Lewis