Avot327

5:
We have already seen how seriously the sages took the mitzvah of giving charity. When Rambam comes to describes the parameters of this mitzvah [Matnot Aniyyim 10:1] he writes:

It is important here to note that Rambam brings as his proof texts verses which at first glance do not seem to have any relationship to charity. "Doing what is right and just" and "righteousness" seem to have more to do with the administration of justice than charity.

6:
But here is enshrined the great difference between the Jewish understanding of the mitzvah of Tzedakah and the gentile understanding of 'charity'. The etymology of the word 'charity' is from the Latin word caritas which may be loosely rendered as 'caring'. In Judaism it is not the emotional 'caring' that we feel towards another that is the basis of the mitzvah but the fact that it is the recipient's legal right. When we give charity we are doing justice. When we give charity we are fulfilling the letter of the law. Thus Tzedakah is derived from righteousness rather than caring.

7:
This means, of course, that almost as many as there are people there can be attitudes to the giving of charity. Our Mishnah enumerates four such attitudes. As is well known, Rambam lists eight degrees of charity, each one less effective than the previous one. (We shall study these degrees of charity in our next shiur.) What he means to teach is that although the giving of Tzedakah is a mitzvah it is possible to fulfill the mitzvah with good grace as a willing attempt to help and improve someone's lot; but it is also possible to fulfill the mitzvah unwillingly and with bad grace, simply because of the law's requirement.

To be continued.

Mishnah 12 [Avot 325] was about the various ways in which students absorb knowledge (and the appropriateness of those ways to the realities of learning the Oral Tradition during the Tannaïtic age).

Ed Frankel writes:

I find it interesting that our current mishna speaks of the rate at which one understands a new lesson, as opposed to the rate at which one learns it. Anyone who has taught recognizes the difference between a student who is erudite and can regurgitate huge quantities of material, and the student who is wise and can apply the lessons of his education.

I respond:

I think that this will be the subject of a later mishnah in this series. However, in the mean time let us not forget that in Tannaïtic times one could not intelligently apply what one had learned without first committing it to memory. There was no other way.