Regarding the custom of giving a blessing to the sommelier or to the wine waiter at a wedding and the like. The basis for this is what is written in the Zohar (II 242a), that there are various things which are carried and carry. Listed there are various things which are carried—i.e., people carry them—and, in truth, these things are the ones doing the carrying. The Chariot, for example, is carried and carries. So, too, the Ark; they would carry it, and it carried its carriers… (Sotah 35a).

This is the concept of giving [drink to recite] a berakhah (blessing), as mentioned above. The letters of BeRaKhaH are an acronym for Ki Ruach Hachayah B’ophanim (“for the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels”) (Ezekiel 1:20). This is the concept of being carried and carries. The wheels carry the living creatures and the living creatures carry them, “for the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels.” It is the same with regard to the entire Chariot. The wheels carry the living creatures, and the living creatures carry the Chariot. But, actually, the Chariot carries everything.

Therefore, we give the one who carries the drink to make a blessing, which corresponds to “for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels”—namely, the concept of carries and is carried. He carries the drink, and now the drink carries him.

{Alternatively, this leads to being broken, because drink extinguishes and also somewhat inflames. But Rebbe Nachman did not explain this matter at all.}