The Tale of Tseḥok ben Esther

This Hebrew account of a Jewish convert to Christianity in tenth-century France, also known as The Chronicle of Le Mans, purports to tell the story of an individual named Tseḥok (Sehok; “Laughter”) ben Esther Israeli who abandoned Judaism and came to defame the Jewish community. Tseḥok is depicted as moving in and out of the Jewish community until he is discovered to be an apostate. The many formulaic depictions in this account, including echoes of the biblical book of Esther, complicate the categorization of this text as an authentic, historical testimony. The text foreshadows many themes that appeared in later accounts of Jewish apostasy, such as the wickedness of former Jews and the unreliability of their commitment to the Jewish community.