With this Mishnah, the figures of the Mishnah enter a new era in the chain of transmission - the era of the Zugos, the Pairs. Until now, each generation was headed by a single individual, the greatest man of his generation, who preserved the entire mesorah and passed it on. From this point forward, the Jewish people are led by two leaders who function as a pair, a leadership of two:
The first of them - the Nasi: the head of the Sanhedrin, and the representative of traditional Jewry before the imperial authorities.
The second of them - the Av Beis Din: literally, the father of the court. He is the deputy and second in command, who works alongside the Nasi and supports him, and he is the second, complementary voice in the transmission of the Torah.
The two Sages of our Mishnah as transitional figures:
The two Sages before us are Yosi ben Yoezer of Tzereidah and Yosi ben Yochanan of Jerusalem, and Chazal themselves point out that they were figures of a period of transition. The Gemara in Sotah 47 says: "When Yosi ben Yoezer of Tzereidah and Yosi ben Yochanan of Jerusalem died, the eshkolos ceased." The word "eshkolos," which literally means clusters of grapes, is a notarikon - words compressed together - meaning "a man who has everything in him." These were the last two in whom the entire mesorah was found in its completeness; from here on, each individual is only partial, and the mesorah is transmitted cumulatively rather than necessarily through one single person.
Rashi there explains what made them great: "Torah ba'amitah" - the Torah was in their hands in its true form; "ve'ein dofi" - without any multiplicity of versions; "u'shechechah" - and there was no forgetting in it; "u'machlokes" - and there was no internal dispute in it.
The historical background - the decrees of Antiochus:
The era of the Zugos spans most of the second and first centuries BCE. This first pair was contemporary with the well known Seleucid oppressor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who was a great persecutor of the Jews. In 175 BCE he conquered Judea from the Ptolemaic empire to the south. He called himself "Epiphanes," meaning a god made manifest, saw himself as a reincarnation of Alexander the Great, and regarded it as his responsibility to bring Hellenism to the world and enlighten the nations with it. For that reason he forced the Jewish people to outlaw the Torah and to adopt Hellenism completely. The response, of course, was the revolt of the Maccabees and the story of Chanukah, which began in 167 BCE, with the miracle of Chanukah in 164 BCE.
Another transition took place here. Antiochus was the first to bring it about that a Kohen Gadol would no longer serve until the end of his life, and he appointed a Kohen Gadol on behalf of the government. This was the first governmental appointment of a Kohen Gadol, and the position became a paid office - whoever could pay more won it. The first Kohen Gadol of this kind was called Jason, a Greek version of the name Yehoshua, and he purchased the office with money. From then on the office of Kohen Gadol became a political appointment, and it lost its standing among the Jewish people.
So, while all of this was meant to suppress traditional Judaism, the result was that the people distanced themselves from the kohanim and from priestly leadership, and turned instead to the meritocracy of the Sages - what we might call rabbinic leadership - as opposed to the kohanim. The status of the kohanim was diminished, and in their place these new men began to enter.
It is worth noting that Yosi ben Yoezer, the Sage of our Mishnah, was himself a kohen, and was even called "the most pious of the priesthood," as the Mishnah in Chagigah puts it. He was among the greatest of the pious kohanim - and even so, this is the point of transition from priestly leadership to leadership based on talent and merit, the leadership of the Sage.
"Kiblu mehem" - from whom?
The Mishnah says that Yosi ben Yoezer of Tzereidah and Yosi ben Yochanan of Jerusalem "kiblu mehem" - received from them. The "it" that they received is the mesorah, the tradition of the Oral Torah. But who are "they," in the plural? Some understand that the reference is not only to Antigonos, the Sage of the previous Mishnah, but also to Shimon HaTzaddik - except that historically this is very difficult. Therefore others, among them the Meiri, understand that they received from Antigonos and from his beis din, and that is "them."
"Yehi beischa beis va'ad lachachamim":
What did Yosi ben Yoezer say? "Yehi beischa beis va'ad lachachamim" - let your house be a meeting place for the Sages. There is, of course, a general merit in helping good people do good things, and all the more so when it comes to the honor of Torah and honoring the Sages. But there is also an additional practical benefit for them: during the Seleucid decrees, when Torah was outlawed, it was impossible to meet in public. The Sanhedrin had difficulty convening, and in its place small gatherings were held, and the Mishnah encourages a person to make himself and his home available for this need and to make it possible.
As a result of that inability of the Sanhedrin to convene formally and consistently, a great catastrophe befell the Jewish people: the beginning of disputes that are never resolved. The first dispute in Torah that remained unsettled arose in this generation, between these two Yosis. This is not the subject of our Mishnah but a subject in Maseches Chagigah, and it concerns the question of whether a person must perform semichah - leaning his weight on the offering on Yom Tov before it is slaughtered. The point for our purposes is that the dispute was not decided: with no Sanhedrin to convene, vote and issue a formal ruling, for the first time a matter was left unresolved, and this dispute exists from this generation onward and continues throughout the entire era of the Zugos.
And there is not only a benefit for the Sages here, but a benefit for the homeowner himself. The presence of a Sage in his house affects him; and once he makes his home their meeting place, it is clear that he will have to raise his home to a level at which the Sage will feel comfortable being identified with it and spending time in it, and so he will be forced to improve his own standing. Practically speaking in our times: inviting a rav to give a shiur in the house once a week. This has a great influence on a person and on his family, and it also presents his home with the challenge of being worthy of it.
It is interesting to note that the Sforno (a later Rishon from Italy) and the Midrash Shmuel (a student of the Arizal) derive a completely different approach in this Mishnah. Although it is not the literal meaning, it is fascinating: in their view the intent is not to command a person to turn the house he lives in into a place to which the Sages come, but the opposite - the place to which the Sages go is the place a person should identify as his home, his home away from home, the place where he is fixed and constantly found. In other words, that he should as it were "live" inside the beis midrash and the shul, in the place where the Sages are.
"Vehevei mis'abek ba'afar ragleihem":
The second thing he said is "vehevei mis'abek ba'afar ragleihem". "Avak" is the dust that rises from the ground as a person walks; "mis'abek" is a verb form - make yourself dusty; "ba'afar ragleihem" - in the dust on the ground, of their feet. The Bartenura brings two explanations here:
The first explanation: a person should walk after them and cling to them. When you walk behind the Sages, the dust rises and settles on you too, because you are so close to them.
The second explanation: the intent is not walking after them but sitting near them. In the time of the Mishnah, shiurim were delivered with the rav sitting on a bench or chair, and all the students sitting around him on the floor. The point is to sit on the floor, right up close, and to grab the seat in the front row - to the point that a person is literally covered in dust from the dust of his teacher's feet. This closeness, of course, has an effect on the student.
There is a completely different approach, according to which this is speaking about shimush talmidei chachamim - the demand to get dusty in the work of the Sage and in serving him. The Gemara in Berachos 12 says explicitly: "Gedolah shimushah shel Torah yoser milimudah" - serving Torah and attending to it is even greater than the study of Torah itself. One cannot separate the honor of Torah and the service of Torah from Torah study.
"Vehevei shoseh betzama es divreihem":
The third thing he said is "vehevei shoseh betzama es divreihem". The idea here is familiar to everyone from personal experience: when a person is thirsty, he does not feel that he wants to drink but that he must drink. It is not a matter of desire but of need. That is the picture the Mishnah wants to paint: a person should not relate to wisdom as something he wants to hear. He does not want to learn Torah - he needs it the way one needs a drink, for "they are our life and the length of our days."
And further: when a person is thirsty, he values every small drop. When a person feels that he does not merely want to learn but needs to learn, every new thing and every new idea becomes highly valuable, and consequently he appreciates it more. As the Machzor Vitri (a student of Rashi's students) says: because you thirst for something and value it, it makes a deeper and more lasting impression on your mind.
One final point: the Sforno notes the precise wording here, "shoseh vatzama es divreihem" - drinking in their words thirstily, their words, and not "words of Torah." From here we learn that this does not apply only to the Torah they will eventually give over to you, but to everything they say. As the Gemara states in Berachos 19b: "afilu sichas chulin shel talmidei chachamim tzerichah talmud" - even the ordinary conversation of Torah scholars requires study, that is, it is worthy of examination, thought and attention. A person should therefore shelter in the shade of the sages and listen with an attentive ear to everything they say, not only in Torah but in every matter they have to speak about, for all of it is worthy of his time, his attention and his careful study.