(י) שְׁמַעְיָה וְאַבְטַלְיוֹן קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. שְׁמַעְיָה אוֹמֵר, אֱהֹב אֶת הַמְּלָאכָה, וּשְׂנָא אֶת הָרַבָּנוּת, וְאַל תִּתְוַדַּע לָרָשׁוּת:
(יא) אַבְטַלְיוֹן אוֹמֵר, חֲכָמִים, הִזָּהֲרוּ בְדִבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁמָּא תָחוּבוּ חוֹבַת גָּלוּת וְתִגְלוּ לִמְקוֹם מַיִם הָרָעִים, וְיִשְׁתּוּ הַתַּלְמִידִים הַבָּאִים אַחֲרֵיכֶם וְיָמוּתוּ, וְנִמְצָא שֵׁם שָׁמַיִם מִתְחַלֵּל:
(10) Shemayah and Avtalyon received from them. Shemayah says, "Love work, hate lordship and do not become familiar with the government."
(11) Avtalyon says, "Sages, be careful with your words, lest you become obligated in an obligation of exile and are exiled to the place of evil waters, and the students who follow after you will drink, and thus the name of Heaven is profaned."
Ovadia from Bartenura
They were righteous converts, and from the children of Sancherib (an Assyrian ruler who ravaged Judah six centuries earlier). And I heard that he was called Avtalyon because he was Av Beit Din (second-in-command of the Sanhedrin), as the translation is a father to small ones. Talya, in Aramaic, means small one.
ת"ר מעשה בכהן גדול אחד שיצא מבית המקדש והוו אזלי כולי עלמא בתריה כיון דחזיונהו לשמעיה ואבטליון שבקוהו לדידיה ואזלי בתר שמעיה ואבטליון לסוף אתו שמעיה ואבטליון לאיפטורי מיניה דכהן גדול אמר להן ייתון בני עממין לשלם אמרו ליה ייתון בני עממין לשלם דעבדין עובדא דאהרן ולא ייתי בר אהרן לשלם דלא עביד עובדא דאהרן
It was taught: There was a story about a certain High priest who walked out of the Temple, and all the nation followed him. But when they saw Shamaya and Avtalyon, they stopped following the High Priest and followed Shamaya and Avtalyon, instead. Eventually Shamaya and Avtalyon visited the High Priest, to take their leave of him. He said to them: May the descendants of the heathen come in peace! They answered him: "May the descendants of the heathen, who do the work of Aaron, arrive in peace, but the descendant of Aaron, who does not do the work of Aaron, shall not come in peace."
How Sosius and Herod took Jerusalem by force; and besides that, how they took Antigonus captive, has been related by us in the foregoing book. We will now proceed in the narration. And since Herod had now the government of all Judea put into his hands, he promoted such of the private men in the city as had been of his party, but never left off avenging and punishing every day those that had chosen to be of the party of his enemies. But Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, a disciple of his, were honored by him above all the rest; for when Jerusalem was besieged, they advised the citizens to receive Herod, for which advice they were well requited. But this Pollio, at the time when Herod was once upon his trial of life and death, foretold, in way of reproach, to Hyrcanus and the other judges, how this Herod, whom they suffered now to escape, would afterward inflict punishment on them all; which had its completion in time, while God fulfilled the words he had spoken.
( שמעיה אומר לסמוך. אבטליון אומר שלא לסמוך. הלל ומנחם לא נחלקו. יצא מנחם. נכנס שמאי. שמאי אומר שלא לסמוך. הלל אומר לסמוך. הראשונים היו נשיאים. ושניים להם אב בית דין:
Shemaya says to lean hands (on the chagigah sacrifice); Avtaliyon says not to lean hands. Hillel and Menahem did not disagree. Menahem left and Shammai entered. Shammai says not to lean hands; Hillel says to lean hands. The first [of each pair] was the nasi [head of the Sanhedrin] and the second [of each pair] was the av beit din [vice-head of the Sandhedrin].
תמהני על שני גדולי הדור שמעיה ואבטליון שהן חכמים גדולים ודרשנין גדולים ולא אמרו להן לישראל חגיגה דוחה את השבת
I am astonished at the two greatest at the two greatest men of our generation, who are great Sages and great interpreters of Torah, yet they have not told Israel, 'The Hagigah sacrifice overrides Sabbath prohibitions,' said Rabbi Yehuda son of Durtai (a famous Sadducee)
אדם אחד יש שעלה מבבל והלל הבבלי שמו ששימש שני גדולי הדור שמעיה ואבטליון ויודע אם פסח דוחה את השבת אם לאו.... אמר להן מי גרם לכם שאעלה מבבל ואהיה נשיא עליכם עצלות שהיתה בכם שלא שמשתם שני גדולי הדור שמעיה ואבטליון
There is one person who just made aliyah from Bavel and Hillel the Babylonian is his name and he served two giant scholars of the generation Shemaya and Avtalion and he knows if Pesach overrides Shabbat or not....He said to them, "Why did you haveme come up from Babylonia to be a Nasi over you? It was your laziness, for not studying with the two greatest men of the time, Shemaya and Avtalyon."
הוא היה אומר אין משקין לא את הגיורת ולא את שפחה המשוחררת. וחכמים אומרים משקין. אמרו לו מעשה בכרכמית שפחה משוחררת שהיתה בירושלים והשקוה שמעיה ואבטליון. אמר להם דוגמא השקוה. ונדוהו ומת בנדויו וסקלו בית דין את ארונו.
(6) ...Akavia ben Mehalel (a well known Sadduccee) would say: One may not make a converted woman nor a freed maidservant drink [from the "bitter waters" that were drunk by a woman suspected of adultery as a test]. But the Sages say: [They are] made to drink. They said to him: There was the case of Karkamit, a freed maidservant in Jerusalem, who was made to drink by Shama'ya and Avtalyon! He said to them: It was her own (i.e. converts, like her) that made her drink (and thus, presumably, was okay in that situation). They excommunicated him, and he died in excommunication, and the Court stoned his coffin.
And in the name of Shemaya they said: You should give peace to your right and then to your left, as it is written "from the right hand is the fiery law unto them" (Deut 33:2) and as it is said "they will fall at the sides thousand and ten thousands from your right hand."....
Why does it say "right hand" twice? Because God's right hand is our left hand.