Our Gemara on Amud Aleph records Rava criticizing two sages for making an incorrect monetary halakhic ruling that erroneously benefited them, while presenting an unreasonable burden for the ferrymen with whom they made a deal. Rav calls Rav Pappa and Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, "White Geese." This is an odd epithet. Rashi says the white geese refer to their long white beards, as they were elders. There is some support for this peshat also from a Gemara in Berachos (57a):
הָרוֹאֶה אַוּוֹז בַּחֲלוֹם — יְצַפֶּה לְחׇכְמָה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: "חׇכְמוֹת בַּחוּץ תָּרֹנָּה"
One who sees a goose in a dream should anticipate wisdom, as it is stated: "Wisdoms cry aloud in the streets, she utters her voice in the broad places" (Proverbs 1:20).
I would like to add a peshat based on a Malbim (Torah Ohr, Bereishis 2:19, Note 3) which explains, based on Adam’s naming of the animals, how each animal embodies various character traits or patterns of behavior. (It is a basic human instinct to draw comparisons between various traits of animals and human personality. For a fascinating discussion of this see pp. 170-171 in Claude Levi-Strauss’ classic, “The Savage Mind“.) From a psychological perspective, we can say that our emotional repertoire comes from unconscious and instinctive traits that can also be seen in animals. In particular, we find Geese embodying a particular archetype of a person who is alternately drawn to companionship and isolation. This is because the goose has a wild form that is undomesticated, and also a domesticated form; and even sometimes a domesticated one will run away and become wild. The Gemara (Bava Basra 73b) speaks of a vision that Rabba bar bar Ḥana had:
וְאָמַר רַבָּה בַּר בַּר חָנָה זִימְנָא חֲדָא הֲוָה קָא אָזְלִינַן בְּמַדְבְּרָא וַחֲזֵינַן הָנְהוּ אֲווֹזֵי דְּשָׁמְטִי גַּדְפַיְיהוּ מִשֻּׁמְנַיְיהוּ וְקָא נָגְדִי נַחֲלֵי דְמִשְׁחָא מִתּוּתַיְיהוּ אָמֵינָא לְהוּ אִית לַן בְּגַוַּיְיכוּ חֻלָקָא לְעָלְמָא דְאָתֵי חֲדָא דְּלִי גַּדְפָּא וַחֲדָא דְּלִי אַטְמָא כִּי אֲתַאי לְקַמֵּיהּ דְּרַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אָמַר לִי עֲתִידִין יִשְׂרָאֵל לִיתֵּן עֲלֵיהֶן אֶת הַדִּין
And Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Once we were traveling in the desert and we saw these geese whose wings were sloping because they were so fat, and streams of oil flowed beneath them. I said to them: Shall we have a portion of you in the World-to-Come? One raised a wing, and one raised a leg, signaling an affirmative response. When I came before Rabbi Elazar, he said to me: The Jewish people will eventually be held accountable for the suffering of the geese. Since the Jews do not repent, the geese are forced to continue to grow fat as they wait to be given to the Jewish people as a reward.
Malbim explains this as a metaphor for an encounter that Rabba bar bar Hana had with a group of Nazirs who rejected life amongst people and civilization. The goose that raised the wing represents the aspiration toward intellectual and spiritual pursuits, and the goose that raised the foot represents aspirations toward zealous performance of Commandments. However, in either case, it is not ideal that they have to isolate themselves. Part of it is an indictment upon the Jewish people who were not able to support sages well enough that they could properly afford to live amongst people. (It is interesting that Malbim has no rebuke or comment for the Nazirs themselves, who he described as abandoning their children and family. Perhaps, he felt that was implicit because the Nazir himself is an ambivalent figure, whose separation from worldly matters is not seen by the Torah as usually correct, except under unusual circumstances for a time-limited period, see Nazir 2 and 4b.)
In light of this, perhaps Rava was rebuking them for being out of touch and far away from practical concerns of day-to-day people, so the ruling that they made was without appreciation for the subjective predicament of the other party. In essence, he was accusing them of being in an ivory tower.
Echoes of this sentiment can be found in R. Kook’s words in Shemonah Kevatzim 1:463 (translation mine):
"The folk who live according to their instincts and are not learned are actually superior in many respects to the learned folk. In particular, their instinctive common sense decency and morality were not corrupted by the intricate, wearying, and too-clever burdens of scholarship
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation 
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