 It seems, therefore, that as time moved on, Leibowitz’s liberal and moral leanings prevent him from being willing to engage in what is ultimately utopian speculation concerning a halakhic vision for the state. The earlier program is a mere pipedream when the state is catering to a nation that has no interest in Jewish observance, and could thus only become a halakhic state through the totalitarian imposition of religious observance. Were the entire population unanimously in favor of such observance, Leibowitz might once again take up the cause, though given the freedom of thought that could lead that population to then change its mind, this seems unlikely. But Leibowitz is unwilling to engage in such idealistic guesswork, which given his positivistic leanings he dismisses as meaningless, claiming fundamentally not to understand how one is to relate seriously to such ideals (Sihot, 92). The possibility that a state might have religious significance “in principle” is not a discussion that can have any political purchase. Political action simply cannot be religious action. In reality then – and present reality is the only reality he is willing to recognize by this point – Leibowitz wishes to keep political questions separate from religion, which in the contemporary state must once again contract itself to the private sphere.