"... Johanan and Joshua’s conversation in Avot de'Rabbi Natan (B) 8 indicates that, in later rabbinic literature, Hosea 6:6 did later come to be interpreted as a text that offers atonement through חסד (chesed) apart from the sacrificial cult. But what of earlier rabbinic literature? Although the concept of meritorious almsgiving is well represented in later Palestinian Amoraic sources (Jerusalem Pe’ah 1:1, 15b; Jerusalem Shabbat 6:10, 8; Leviticus Rabbah 34:7-8; compare Genesis Rabbah 44:12; b. Bava Batra 9b; 10a; 11a; b. Sukkot 49b), perhaps only three texts from the Tannaitic literature emphasize the meritorious and/or atoning nature of care for the poor. It is not necessary here to entertain the complicated question of whether and to what extent later rabbinic texts may preserve earlier historical traditions. The point to be made by looking at early rabbinic texts is that, while the Tannaitic literature does occasionally endorse the meritorious or atoning nature of almsgiving, never in Tannaitic sources is this position advanced with reference to the so-called prophetic critique of sacrifice ..."