Two hundred seventy-one of the total 613 commands remain in constant effect through both pre-Exilic and post-Exilic times, according to the figure arrived at by Yisrael Mair HaCohen Kagan, known popularly as Chofetz Chaim, in his Sefer HaMitzvoth HaKatzer (An Abbreviated Book of the Commandments), which bears a subtitle that translates: "Selected and gathered herein are all the Positive Commandments that can be fulfilled during the present era; also all the Negative Commandments whose restrictions hold for the present era, according to the enumeration of them by Maimonides and many of his contemporaries.<ref> Yisroel Mair HaCohen Kagan, Sefer HaMitzvoth HaKatzer, New York Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, 1958. The total given for the Positive Comamndments is 77 (page 29) and the total given for the NegAtive Commandments is 194 (page 78). Because the Chofetz Chaim uses "the enumeration of them by Maimonides and many of his contemporaries," his calculation can be incorporated with a safe probable margin of error into the present study, which also follows Maimonides in the main, while at the same time taking into account the varying opinions of his contemporaries.</ref>
If one pursues this tack, he emerges with an Israelite/Noahite ratio of 271 to 66, or roughly 4 to 1, a far cry from the ratio that juxtaposing 613 and 7 yields. The ratio of 4 to 1 being considered here is based on the acceptance of the dominant or majority opinion when the inclusion of any commandment is subject to dispute. This procedure has been followed throughout the present study. However, the ratio would continue to improve in favor of Noahism if one were to incorporate such minority opinions as those of Tana Debe Menashei and R. Eliezer and others mentioned earlier. While such minority opinions are properly omitted from the list being compiled, these minority opinions do reinforce our awareness that the Talmudists envisioned Noahide Law as a system of considerable breadth, and more than a haphazard combination of some seven laws. <ref> For contrast, see how Baron imputes to the talmudic jurists the view that Noahide Law is merely a skimpy, halting legal formulation: "The farthest the Jewish jurists were able to go in recognizing '[[natural law]]' was to formulate six or seven 'Noahite commandments,' to which all peoples must submit and which were to be enforced on all subjects of a Jewish state." (Salo W. Baron, A Social and Religious History ot the Jews, volume VI, page 5.)</ref>
