Good Middos And Psak

A bas kol [heavenly voice] came out an proclaimed that the halacha follows Beis Hillel against Beis Shammai [Yevamos 14]. Tosfos asks why we listen to the bas kol when we know that Torah is NOT in shomayim and man not G-d decides the halacha. Tosfos answers that since Beis Hillel were the majority we can follow them. But that still leaves unanswered why we then need the bas kol?

The gemara [Eiruvin 13] says that Beis Hillel were very humble and used to always first quote the opinion of their adversaries Beis Shammai and then their own. It would seem then that the purpose of the bas kol was to reveal that Beis Hillel had really good middos. So the bas kol is not paskening halacha but revealing to us the sterling character traits of Beis Hillel [maybe we knew how they acted and the bas kol revealed that it was genuine].  

Rav Chaim Ozer said that the reason that the Talmudic methodology of Rav Chaim Soloveichik was accepted in almost every yeshiva was not only because of his genius but because he was such a big baal chesed as well. In fact, Rav Chaim wanted inscribed on his tombstone just the words רב חסד - a double entendre meaning a Rabbi of chesed and one who does much chesed [and make no reference to the fact the he was the top scholar in the entire universe and had/has a trillion talmidim].    

עפ"י עולת יצחק עמ' רצה