Haim Rachlevsky (Be'er) was born in Jerusalem to an Orthodox Jewish family. He grew up in the Geula neighborhood, and attended Ma'aleh, a state religious high school. In 1963–1965 he served in the Israel Defense Forces in the army rabbinate, writing for the army newspaper Mahanayim. Concurrently he worked nights as a copy editor at the daily newspaper Davar.
In 1966, he began working at the Am Oved publishing house, first as a copyeditor and later as an editor and member of the editorial board. All his books have been published by Am Oved. For ten years, he wrote a weekly column called "Memoirs of a Bookworm" (Mi-zikhronoteha shel tolaat sefarim).
Be'er's latest novel, El Makom Sheharuakh Holekh, ("Back from Heavenly Lake"; 2010), was inspired by a trek to Nepal and Tibet. Dedicated to the classic Yiddish writer Mendele Mocher Sforim, it is a mystical tale about a Hasidicrebbe from Bnei Brak who travels to Tibet.[1]