 The first thing to note here is that as a matter of empirical fact, Claim 2 is more often than not true. It is indeed usually the case that halakhic practice precedes belief in God, such that one’s initial practice is not based on that belief in any meaningful sense. At the point at which we are beings who are able to reflect thoughtfully about our commitment to our practices and the origins of that commitment, we are already implicated in and formed by them. Thus, practice is generally not based on an initial belief in God, but on practice itself, passed down through parents or others. It is only subsequent to being committed to the practice that we reflect, analyse, and even formulate the very idea that we are practicing out of a commitment to God. Talk of God thus supervenes on the commitment to the practice rather than being a justification for it. Jewish faith, Leibowitz tells us, “cannot be understood at all if the Torah and its precepts are not construed as data preceding recognition of the Giver of the Torah” (Judaism, 5).