These two sages, Yose ben Yoezer and Yose ben Yochanan, received the tradition from both Shimon HaTzaddik and Antigonos Ish Socho. They studied under Shimon HaTzaddik first, and then, when he passed away, they continued under his student, Antigonos Ish Socho. This pair was a zug (pair). They were the two sages who partnered together to lead the Jewish people. The first one mentioned here, Yose ben Yoezer, was the nasi, the president of the Beit Din (rabbinical court). The second one, Yose ben Yochanan, was the av Beit Din, the head of the Sanhedrin, the second in command.
They taught us the following: “Yehi beitecha beit va'ad la-chachamim (rabbis).” Your house should be a meeting place. A meeting place for the chachamim, for the rabbis. Open your house. Be very welcoming for people to come in to study, especially the chachamim. When they gather, when they're getting together, they want to hold their meetings, they'll feel comfortable calling and asking you to use your home. The benefit to you would be that when you have wise people around, even though you may not pick up on every nuance of the discussion—halachically, it may be very deep, it may be very complex—of course a person is going to absorb some sort of chochmah, wisdom from them, and character traits, building middot (character traits), like a person who walks into the perfume shop. He may not buy anything or leave with anything, but automatically he leaves with a certain smell.
Secondly, sit before them and become dusty with the dust of their feet. Two explanations are brought down by Bartenura. Become a person who studies Torah with the scholars of the generation in the times of the Mishnah. The teacher would sit on a chair, and the students would sit below him at his feet. So become dusty with the dust of the feet of the chacham (sage). As you're sitting below him, he may move his feet, and you're going to become dusty from whatever dust he kicks up. Number one. Secondly, always follow him. Chase after the chachamim. When they're walking, they'll kick up some dust behind them, and you should become dusty in that dust because you're following him, watching him, observing him, and accomplishing the great task of being meshamesh talmidei chachamim, serving Torah scholars. Automatically, you'll also pick up a tremendous amount of dust. You'll also pick up a tremendous amount of knowledge just from watching them.
And lastly, drink their words with thirst. When somebody's trying to acquire Torah and wants to become a talmid chacham (Torah scholar), they have to be like a person who's super thirsty, who's never going to be satiated. Drink as much water as you can. That means take in as much Torah as you could absorb. Never stop. Be like somebody who's constantly thirsty and needs more, as opposed to somebody who's full and doesn't even want to taste anything. If a person is satiated, he's full and he can't fit anything more. You can bring him the biggest delicacy in the world. You can bring him something that's so delicious, and he'll reject it because he has little interest in it; he's so full. And it could be like that for a person, too. If a person is not looking for Torah and he's not interested in wisdom in a big way, then any type of chiddush that's brought to him, any type of teaching of Torah, he'll reject, and he won't feel a passion for it.
So these are the pieces of advice that these two great sages gave us.