Considered one of the first modern Hebrew poets, Rahel wrote her early poems in Russian. Many of her Hebrew poems have been set to music.

Born and educated in Russia, Rahel came to Eretz Yisrael in 1909 where she was greatly influenced by the writer, A.D. Gordon. She first worked as a laborer in Rehovot and later joined a training farm near the Kinneret. After a 6-year stay in France and Russia, she returned to Eretz-Israel (1919) and joined Kibbutz Deganiah. Having contracted tuberculosis, she was forced to leave the kibbutz, and spent the rest of her life in Jerusalem, Safed and Tel Aviv; references to her impending death are found in her later poems. Rahel is buried in the Kibbutz Kinneret cemetery.