L'Shana Haba'ah

L'Shana Haba'ah evokes a common theme in Jewish culture of a desire to return to a rebuilt Jerusalem, and commentators have suggested that it serves as a reminder of the experience of living in exile.

[3] The Talmud is replete with statements affirming the superior religious status of the Holy Land, the obligation of Jews to live there, and the confidence in the ultimate collective return of the Jewish people.

'"In Jerusalem, to the next year') is seen in Joseph Ibn Abitur's 10th century poem "A'amir Mistatter",[11] which is found in the Cairo Geniza and appears in many Ashkenazic Makhzors as a prayer for the Shabbat before Passover.

[1] Professor Nancy Berg of Washington University in St. Louis has also suggested that the recitation of L'Shana Haba'ah "unite[s] the Jews as a people" because it is a reminder of the shared experience of living in exile,.

[2] Some scholars have noted that the purpose of reciting L'Shana Haba'ah at the end of the Ne'ila prayers on Yom Kippur is to express "our deep felt yearning to reunite with the Shechinah in the rebuilt Yerushalayim".