Pirkei Avot, 1:4

"Yossi ben (son of) Yo'ezer of Ts'raidah and Yossi ben Yochanan of Jerusalem received [the transmission] from them. Yossi ben Yo'ezer used to say: Let your house be a meeting place for the sages, cleave to the dust of their feet, and drink thirstily their words."

With this mishna, we have now passed from transmission to reception of Torah.  The first mishna of the chapter was an instruction to the teachers; this is an instruction to the students.  This is not accidental.  The generation that learned from Moses, who were personally responsible for transmitting the law, lest it be forgotten for posterity, is now gone.  We are now left with the men who learned from the men of the Great Assembly, who are now more concerned with persuading us to receive the transmission, than with persuading those who received it to transmit it.  The emphasis of l'dor v'dor has changed from the need to transmit, to the need to receive what is transmitted.

On a literal level, the mishna addresses rules of our house; we are to welcome sages and learn from them.  But it is inescapable that the mishna also addresses our spiritual home, for it is not just in our house that we learn.  Rather, in our lives we must seek out and draw from those who are learned in Torah their habits and priorities.  The Torah, when earnestly studied over a period of time, changes the character of the student.  This changed character is contained metaphorically in "the dust of their feet" and in "their words".  It is this character, that is molded by deep study of Torah and that can be acquired from those learned in the Torah, that is to be earnestly sought out and emulated by the community of Israel at large.