Shalom friends,

Rachel - A poet who touches many souls, a poet whose lyrics have been interpreted by many musicians decades after she had passed away, a poet who’s loved by adults and youngsters, by men and women, a poet who longed for the land as she longed for love, a poet who bonds lonely hearts with her lyrics, a poet that reflected on biblical stories and yet sounds so modern, a poet whose songs are relevant 80 years after her death.
Rachel Bluwstein Sela is one of the most famous and well acclaimed Hebrew poets of our time. She is known by her first name, Rachel, (רָחֵל‎) or as Rachel the Poetess (רָחֵל הַמְּשׁוֹרֶרֶת).
Rachel was born in Russia in 1890, as the eleventh daughter of a wealthy Jewish family. At the age of 19, Rachel visited Eretz Israel with her sister on her way to study in Europe. In Jaffa, she met Hannah Maizel, one of the first pioneers, who had decided to create an institution where young women could learn agricultural techniques. The two sisters decided to stay in Israel as pioneers and started working in the orchards of Rechovot.
A year later, Rachel joined Hannah Maizel’s agricultural group. In working the land Rachel found self-realization and salvation. In 1911, Rachel moved with the group to Kvutzat Kinneret, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (כִּנֶּרֶת  , Kinneret), to work the land and learn more about agriculture.
Rachel fell in love with the landscapes and people around Kvutzat Kinneret, including A. D. Gordon who lived in Israel’s first kibbutz, Deganya. Gordon had much influence on Rachel - she referred to him as her grandfather and dedicated to him the first few poems she wrote in the Hebrew language. She dedicated her love poems to a young pioneer named Shneur Zalman Rubashov. This young man later became the third president of the State of Israel under the Hebrew name of Zalman Chazar.
In 1913, Rachel went to France to study agronomy and drawing. When World War I broke out, she was unable to return to Palestine. She went to Russia and taught Jewish refugee children. At that place, she probably contracted tuberculosis.
After the war ended, she returned to Palestine and joined the small agricultural Kibbutz Degania. However, shortly after her arrival she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, then an incurable disease. She was unable to work with children for fear of contagion, and she didn’t have enough strength to work in Agriculture. She left Degania and spent the rest of her life traveling in the Land of Israel and living in Tel-Aviv.
When she lived on the shores of the Kinneret, Rachel wrote many poems about the pastoral countryside of Eretz Israel. As she was unable to bear a child, she wrote poems about her longing for a child. In one song titled “barren” (עֲקָרָה, akara) she described her fantasy son, whom she called Uri. Rachel also used many references to the Bible and sometimes identified herself as Our Mother Rachel or King Sha’ul’s daughter, Michal. Rachel also wrote love poems emphasizing the feelings of loneliness, distance, and longing for the beloved. 
Rachel died in 1931, at the age of 40. She is buried in the Kinneret cemetery in a grave overlooking the Sea of Galilee, following her wishes as expressed in her poem “If Fate Decrees” (אִם צַו הַגּוֹרָל, im tsav hagoral).

הֱיוּ שָׁלוֹם!
Heyu Shalom!
Farewell!

שירה כהן-רגב
Shira Cohen-Regev
Hebrew teacher @ eTeacherHebrew