Questions On The Parsha

לרפואת ישי דב הלוי בן נרי בתוך שח"י ויהודה בן מרגלית שרה בתוך שח"י

The Rebbe Shlita in his weekly chumash shiur asked [as he does every week] questions that have never been asked before but require understanding at every level.  Moshe in this weeks parsha [4/20] says in this weeks parsha that Hashem took us out of Egypt which was a כור הברזל.

1] What on earth is a כור הברזל? Iron crucible. What is that??

2] Rashi says that it is a machine that purifies "gold". So why then is it called "Iron". It should be called a "gold crucible"?!

3] This is the first and only time in the Torah that Egypt is called כור הברזל. Why not earlier in the many times that the Torah mentions yetzias mitzrayim?

4] The Netziv and Meshech Chochma ask: Moshe was talking about Matan Torah and then out of the blue in our pasuk he goes back to Mitzraim. Is he an old grandmother who is no longer with it and is confused?? Chas vi-shalom! So why does he speak out of context?

5] In pasuk says that Hashem took us out of the כור הברזל to be his עם נחלה. This term עם נחלה appears nowhere else. What on earth does it mean?? עם נחלה???

6] I add [if I may...]: We are chosen as an עם נחלה כיום הזה. What does כיום הזה mean? Does it mean "today". Then say היום הזה. Does it mean "like today". What is "like today"? What would have we missed if the pasuk would have said that we are chosen as G-d's nation and stopped there?? [So completely by "accident", I was learning something else minutes after I posted and came by a maamar in the Pachad Yitzchak - Chanuka 16 where he talks about כהיום הזה in a different context - עיי"ש]

If you learn and you think you discover amazing things.....:-)