Avot227

1:
Several sages (and at least one High Priest) bore the name Yishma'el. This is perhaps surprising, seeing that the biblical eponym, the elder son of Abraham, is considered to have grown to be someone who was not righteous. Perhaps the greatest sage who bore that name was the Rabbi Yishma'el who was the great protagonist of Rabbi Akiva. However, he cannot be the Rabbi Yishma'el of our present mishnah for two reasons. Firstly, a teaching has already been ascribed to him earlier (Avot 187); and secondly, in some codices our present mishnah is superscribed: "Rabbi Yishma'el, his son, says".

2:
This indicates to us two things. Firstly, the sage of our present mishnah is Rabbi Yishma'el ben-Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Baroka (for Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Baroka was the sage of the preceding mishnah). It also indicates that from the chronological point of view we are moving into the second half of the 2nd century CE. Rabbi Yishma'el ben-Rabbi Yoĥanan ben-Baroka was a study colleague of the Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el who was president of the Sanhedrin during the very difficult period of national rehabilitation which followed the bar-Kokhba débâcle (for a couple of decades following 136 CE). See Avot 076.

3:
Several dozen halakhot are quoted in our classical sources in the name of the Rabbi Yishma'el of our present mishnah. The subject matter of these halakhot is quite varied and includes kashrut (dietary rules), sacrifices (which had been defunct for some seven decades at this time), Levitical purity (which was ignored by the masses and diligently followed by the sages) and various matters connected with what we now would call civil law. However, almost nothing is recorded in his name in the province of Aggadah.

4:
His teaching in our present mishnah is simple. Each person could have several noble motives for learning Torah. Obviously, the most basic motivation for the serious study of Torah (using the term in its widest sense) is to know it. But knowledge has little value if it is not used. Knowledge of Torah can be used in two ways: that knowledge can be passed on to others through teaching; and it can serve as the basis of living a life of Torah, observance.

5:
Rabbi Yishma'el affirms that study of Torah in order to teach it to others is a noble motive, and that teaching will bring with it as a concomitant further learning; for one cannot teach without increasing one's own knowledge incidentally. (We have noted on several occasions the admission of Rabbi Ĥanina [Ta'anit 7a] that he had learned most of all from his students.) But learning Torah in order to perform its mitzvot is held by Rabbi Yishma'el to be a superior motive. What virtue is there in Torah knowledge if that knowledge is not put to practical use in pious observance? Those who observe Torah will achieve all the other goals as well because one of the biblical mitzvot [Joshua 1:8] is its constant study; and even simple observance will involve teaching if only by example.

6:
Most interesting are the comments of Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro concerning our mishnah. He interprets "to do" in the rather restricted sense of 'to do acts of kindness' [gemilut ĥasadim]. The Gemara [Rosh ha-Shanah 18a] describes the great sage Rava as being so occupied with Torah study that he found little time for simple acts of human kindness towards others; his adopted brother, Abayyé, not only studied Torah but also took pains to be active in gemilut ĥasadim. Clearly, according to Rabbi Yishma'el in our present mishnah, Abayyé was superior to Rava in this regard.

In Avot 224 we discussed the virtue of humility. I noted that the Torah describes Moses as being "a very humble man, more so than any other man on earth." I then commented: If this is true of Moses, the greatest prophet Israel has ever known, a human being with whom God spoke "face to face", how much more is it appropriate that lesser mortals cultivate humility.

Art Kamlet adds:

The positive aspects of humbleness are also reinforced in Psalm 37:11 – The humble shall inherit the earth.