Avot244

1:
Rabbi El'azar ben-Shammu'a was a contemporary of the sage mentioned in the previous mishnah, Rabbi Yoĥanan the sandal-maker. Like many others of his generation he studied under Rabbi Akiva. We have already seen [Avot 232] that he was one of the five young men who were clandestinely ordained by Rabbi Yehudah ben-Bava during the height of the Hadrianic persecution. Like Rabbi Tarfon before him he was both a Kohen and rich. He was a very popular teacher and many students were attracted to his Bet Midrash. One of them was the very young Yehudah who was eventually to become Rabbi Yehudah the President of the Sanhedrin and the compiler of the Mishnah. Later on in life he recalled [Eruvin 53a] that Rabbi El'azar ben-Shammu'a was so popular that six students had to be crammed into the space of one cubit.

2:
His teachings are not quoted in our sources as often as those of his colleagues, which is strange because his contemporaries thought that he was a very good scholar and a very good person. One sage praised him as "the best of the sages" [Keritot 13a].

3:
The Gemara [Megillah 27b] reveals the man's simple piety. His students once asked him how he explained the fact that among all his contemporaries it was he who had reached a very advanced age. He responded:

On another occasion he was asked [Sanhedrin 98b] what merits will save a person from the tribulations which are to precede the messianic age. He responded:

Perhaps most telling of all is his simple teaching [Ĥagigah 12b] that when the bible says [Proverbs 10:25] that "the righteous person is the foundation of the world" it means that the world rests on one single pillar which is called "righteous".

4:
The teaching of Rabbi El'azar ben-Shammu'a that is enshrined in our present mishnah is typical of the man. He describes a pyramid of respect. The normal healthy personality has self-respect. Often we find that teachers – especially respected teachers – relate to their students as "lesser beings". Our mishnah teaches that no less respect than a teacher accords to himself should be shown to his students. We have often mentioned the custom of studying Torah together with a Ĥavruta, a study companion. Rabbi El'azar warns that the same respect should be accorded to one's study companion as would usually be accorded to one's teacher. And, at the top of the pyramid, comes the respect due to one's teacher to whom one should show respect that is similar to the respect that is usually associated with God.

In Avot 239 Jacob Chinitz asked a question concerning the name "Yishma'el". He asked why it had fallen into dissuetude among Jews. I responded that I did not know the answer and asked: Does anybody have any information on this subject?

Jim Feldman writes:

When a question seems to have no answer, I always type it into Google to see what the world has done with it. Yishmael brings up a host of references to Yitzchak and his brother as well as Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha who was one of the Ten Martyrs. So the name was certainly current at the time of the Second Revolt. The name Yishmael is not that different from the name Shmuel – "God will hear" vs. "God heard." In fact, one of the leads from Google listed a quote (Avot 4:5) by Rabbi Yishmael ben Yochanan ben Berokah and lists it as: "Midrash Shmuel quoted in Tosefot Yom Tov." While the biblical references are to two totally different people, is it possible that the name simply went through a fashion change? Finally, in the English tongue, Herman Melville certainly put a most permanent cast to that name, beginning with the wonderful: "Call me Ishmael."

I respond:

I am not sure than I can agree with the etymology of the name Shemuel suggested by Jim. The accepted spelling of the name in Hebrew does not have the letter 'ayin' where one would expect it if the name meant "God heard". Furthermore, in the biblical story [1Samuel 1:20] Ĥannah calls her son Samuel "because I asked him of God" – which sounds like an appropriate explanation of the Hebrew name "Saul". Most confusing. Jim's comment about Midrash Shemuel (a midrashic collection from the Middle Ages) I did not understand.