A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parshah, Parshas Bo. At the end of the parshah, the Torah says, והיה כי ישאלך בנך מחר לאמר, if your son tomorrow will ask you and he'll say מה זאת, what is this that you're doing with the קרבן פסח, etc. etc., so the Torah says what you should answer him. And Rashi comments on the word machar, tomorrow your son will ask you, יש מחר שהוא עכשיו, there is the word machar sometimes means now, ויש מחר שהוא לאחר זמן, and sometimes the word machar, tomorrow, doesn't mean literally tomorrow, but it means later time in the future. But the Rebbe asks the question: the first machar that Rashi says, that there is a machar which is now, doesn't mean now. It means there is machar, the word machar meaning literally tomorrow, actually tomorrow, the next day, and sometimes machar means in the future. So even the first machar is not now. Rashi should have said יש מחר שהוא כפשוטו, sometimes the word machar, tomorrow, means simple pshat, tomorrow, and sometimes it means later in the future. But why does Rashi write יש מחר שהוא עכשיו, that sometimes the word machar means now? It doesn't mean now, it means tomorrow. What does Rashi mean with that?

So the Rebbe says Rashi is meramez here that there are two kinds of banim. The word machar, tomorrow, also means the next generation. We refer to that tomorrow, there is the generation of now, and then there is the future, the next generation. Now there are two types of children in the next generation. You have a child that follows in the footsteps of his father, and he's basically in the same level, the same way as the previous generation, that his father is. Sometimes you can have a child, God forbid, that is not in the same generation basically as the father. We would call that there is a generation gap. He is not the same way b'ruchniyus as his father. And that's what Rashi says, יש מחר שהוא עכשיו. Sometimes the word machar, tomorrow, which means the next generation, which is achshav, which is now. Sometimes you have a next generation which is in the same level as the generation now, there is no generation gap. And then יש מחר שהוא לאחר זמן, sometimes machar, which means the next generation, is a generation of the future and there is a generation gap. But the truth is they are both your children. So that's what Rashi says, when the pasuk says והיה כי ישאלך בנך מחר לאמר מה זאת, if your child, machar, tomorrow, will ask you, you have to explain it to him, you have to be mekarev him. So Rashi says this refers to both levels of children. You could have a מחר, a next generation which is עכשיו, which is now, he's in the same level as you, so certainly with him you got to work, you got to teach him, you got to educate him, etc. etc. But then Rashi says יש מחר שהוא לאחר זמן, sometimes you have a מחר which is the next generation, which is from a different generation completely, he's not at all at your level. So one might think, what can I do with him? There's a generation gap and there's nothing I can do. That's what Rashi says, the pasuk says that even in that case you have to mekarev him, you have to give yourself over to him, you have to teach him, and you will bring him back that he will also become in the same level as you are, he will become like the other son who's a מחר שהוא עכשיו, that he is in the same level as the generation of now.