Thousands of people, many from the central region, thronged to the tenth annual Hakhel (Assembly) festival of Jewish studies in the Galilee on Sunday.

The Kibbutz Movement's Bina Center organized this year's event at Tel-Hai College, instead of in the central region, as is customary, as a display of solidarity with the north after the war.

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Like the similar annual Jewish studies festival in Kfar Blum, the Hakhel reflects both the great success and the great dilemma of the revolution in Jewish studies in Israel. On one hand, 3,000 to 4,000 people, many of them young, flocked to two annual events focusing on Judaism, something that would have seemed unlikely a decade ago. On the other hand, the participants are mostly Judaism aficionados, for whom the festivals have become a sort of annual reunion.

Nir Dagan, one of Hakhel's producers this year, said that there are ways of attracting new people to the events. "We try to have a major rock performance at every event. This year, it was Kaveret veterans Gidi Gov, Danny Sanderson and some of their mates. That attracted both youngsters and older people who remember them."

The producers also arranged transportation for pre-army students, reduced prices, distributed free invitations to student volunteers helping farmers in the north, and so forth.

Attracting larger secular audiences is one of the major issues troubling secular Judaism activists. Going to places of Torah study has become not merely legitimate, but trendy. But the movement encompasses only a few thousand people. Activists are also troubled by the effect that engagement with secular Judaism will have on Israeli culture, and whether it is not doomed to fail, in view of the "Channel 2 television culture."

"Jesus began with 12 disciples, and look how far he's come," said Professor Ya'akov Malkin, a veteran secular Judaism activist.

Na'ama Azoulay of Bar-Ilan University, who is writing a doctorate on secular activism as a component of the Jewish revival, similarly believes that "the circle is expanding all the time, and there is no reason to worry."

In contrast, Ruth Calderon, founder of the Elul Torah study program and Alma College, warns that secular activists should learn from the ultra-Orthodox, who "shot themselves in the foot when they turned Torah study into a mass pursuit."

Nevertheless, all three are thinking of ways to interest more people in the field. Malkin, formerly a lecturer on cinema, suggested "using not merely texts but art, which is an international language. There are numerous movies dealing with Jewish issues. A Woody Allen movie or an episode of Seinfeld could serve as a basis for debate on Jewish issues no less than do texts."

"I see no need to 'beat' the Channel 2 culture, because I believe that people are not stupid, and where there's a crowd, there's probably a need," countered Calderon.

Uri Elon, a teacher of secular Judaism (and brother of MK Benny Elon and Rabbi Motti Elon), said: "I would define our goal as secularizing Jewish concepts. We must not leave terms like God, holiness and prayer to the religious, because these are things that every person needs, even if his interpretations of God and prayer are different from those of a religious person."

Former minister Yair Tzaban, another veteran secular Judaism activist, believes that it was a mistake to focus on Torah study, an elitist activity. "This is why we did not establish Torah study programs in Meitar [a secular Judaism movement], but went in two different directions: education - contacts with schools, writing curricula, etc. - and building communities," he said.

What prompted the interest in secular Judaism at this time? Some see a natural ripening of processes rather than a reaction to something. Azoulay, for instance, sees this as a gradual result of events like the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, as well as of "the growing influence of Mizrahi Jews [Jews of Middle Eastern origin], to whom tradition and Judaism were much more central than they were to Ashkenazis."

Some say that the spiritual, New Age-style search sweeping the Western world has influenced the process. "In my youth, people did not speak of spirituality. The generation that traveled through India generated legitimacy for spirituality," said Calderon.

Calderon also sees the engagement with Judaism as characteristic of Zionism's third generation. "This generation no longer fears the old religious world, against which its parents and grandparents fought, and can approach it more openly," she said.

Tzaban sees the issue as one of the dilemmas of the present generation, which "is preoccupied with the tension between being Jewish and being Israeli. A youngster asks himself why he should feel closer to a Jew from Mea She'arim, who doesn't serve in the army, than to the Druze officer who risks his life for him."

Itamar Lapid, of the Oranim Seminar, added: "The third generation feels secure enough, and has time enough, and feels a need to ask the basic questions that his father and grandfather had no time for, because they were busy building the foundations."

Lapid and Tzaban both said that this generation needs Judaism as an anchor against fluctuating values. "This generation needs stability in the face of the crumbling solidarity in Israeli society, which formerly saw social justice as a cultural and moral priority," said Tzaban. "Certain groups return to Judaism for social justice."

"Judaism is an anchor in the sweeping culture of post-modernism and privatization," agreed Lapid.

Many see the murder of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin as one of the triggers for the interest in secular Judaism. "The murder created a feeling that if Jewish teachings could lead a man to murder a prime minister, we must study them deeply," said Lapid.

Azoulay added that after Rabin's murder, "there was an urgent need to take Judaism away from the religious people."

But Elon is convinced that "beyond all this is a spiritual, essential human need, the need that created the Talmud and the Zohar."