English: “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moshe” — in Israel there did not arise, but among the nations of the world there did arise. And who was that? Bilaam son of Beor. Yet there is a difference between the prophets of Israel and the prophets of the nations of the world.
The restriction “in Israel” is read as leaving room for a prophet of comparable stature among the nations, identified as Bilaam, while still preserving a qualitative distinction.
Type of Learning
Custom (phrase-by-phrase or midrashic expansion of the verse).
What Is Learned
The midrash extracts concrete legal, historical or theological referents from the wording of the passuk, giving the brief biblical language a fuller operational meaning.