Or Bareket was born in Jerusalem to a family with Moroccan, Iraqi, Argentinian, and Eastern European roots, and grew up splitting his childhood between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv. He picked up electric bass at 16 after hearing Jaco Pastorius, switched to upright bass at 18, and trained classically with Teddy Kling, principal bassist of the Israel Philharmonic, and later Professor Michael Klinghoffer. Alongside that classical grounding, he studied jazz in Israel with bassist Avishai Cohen, working in the Israeli jazz scene before relocating.

In 2011, Bareket won 1st Prize at the International Society of Bassists' jazz competition and moved to Brooklyn, where he has been based since. Over the following years he built a career as a first-call sideman on the New York scene, recording and performing with Chris Potter, Joshua Redman, Ari Hoenig, Billy Hart, Jean-Michel Pilc, Don Friedman, Victor Lewis, Gilad Hekselman, Cyrille Aimee, and Yotam Silberstein, among many others. He was a participant in Betty Carter's "Jazz Ahead" residency at the Kennedy Center, received multiple America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships and a Eubie Blake Fellowship, and attended the Steans Institute (Ravinia) and the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music.

His debut as a leader, OB1, came out on Fresh Sound Records in 2017, with a band featuring Gadi Lehavi on piano and Ziv Ravitz on drums. 33 followed on Enja Records in 2019, featuring Nitai Hershkovits on piano and a guest appearance from vocalist Camila Meza. Sahar, composed and recorded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, arrived on Enja in May 2022; its title carries a double meaning across Semitic languages, "crescent" in modern Hebrew, and "just before dawn" or "insomnia" in Arabic dialects. His most recent album, Yōm (Enja, October 2024), was produced by vibraphonist Joel Ross and recorded at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut. It represents his current quartet, with Godwin Louis on saxophones, Jeremy Corren on piano, and Savannah Harris on drums, and prompted the group's most extensive European tour to date.

Bareket's playing draws together Mediterranean, South American, and North African folk idioms filtered through the American jazz tradition, a direct reflection of his own multi-continental upbringing. He is also a member of the Fred Nardin Trio (French pianist Frédéric Nardin's working group) and has recorded multiple albums with his brother, saxophonist Eden Bareket.

Bareket's foundational influence was Jaco Pastorius, whose playing pulled him toward the electric bass at 16 before he moved to the upright instrument two years later. His classical training under Teddy Kling and Michael Klinghoffer gave him a rigorous technical base, while his jazz apprenticeship with Avishai Cohen in Israel shaped his approach to the instrument as a compositional and improvisational voice rather than a purely supportive role.

His own compositional style is defined by its refusal to sit inside one folkloric tradition: Andalusian and Mediterranean phrasing, Latin American forms (Argentinian zamba, Brazilian song), and North African rhythm sit alongside straight-ahead swing and post-bop harmony, often within the same piece. Reviewers have described his sound as carrying "rhythmic sophistication and lyrical depth," and his bandleading favors close, working ensembles (the same rhythm section returns across releases) over rotating all-star lineups.