Rabbi Menachem Libman was born in Elul 5755 to Rabbi Baruch and Esther Menkei Hadaat in Jerusalem.
His childhood was spent in the alleys of Geula, where he absorbed the aromas of the old settlement.
In his youth, he studied at the Yeshiva ‘Yishuv HaChadash’ in Tel Aviv, where he combined pure fear of God and extensive and meticulous Torah study with the ability to express himself in poetry and literary creation.

His search for the true path in the service of God led him to return to Jerusalem and study at the ‘Beit Yosef’ Yeshiva in Novohardok, which belongs to the Mussar movement headed by Rabbi Ben-Zion Baruk, zt”l. Before the eyes of the young Menachem stood his grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Lipa Mayzlik, zt”l, a Chernobyl Hasidim who was an outstanding scholar, Hasidic, humble, and God-fearing.

With his elevation in Torah study, a vibrant national spirit also developed within him. Everything that happened to all of Israel touched the very roots of his soul. In those days, he often wrote Torah sermons, prose and poetry, articles on current affairs, letters to the editor, historical studies, and sublime spiritual movements.

His turbulent soul led him to the “Merkaz HaRav” in Jerusalem. From 1964, he began to dwell in the shadow of his great teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook zt”l, who showed him great affection and drew him close.

His years of study with his distinguished rabbis, the Rachi’a zt”l and Rabbi David Cohen zt”l, impressed upon him the true stamp of the Torah of the Land of Israel.

The liberation of Jerusalem and the lands of our ancestors awakened his soul with passion for the approaching redemption. On Chol HaMoed 5728, he joined with several other young men from the ‘Merkaz HaRav’ to renew the Jewish settlement in Hebron at the ‘Park’ Hotel, and thus the ‘Hebron Settlers’ Yeshiva was founded. From then on, his great power began for a time in the Hebron hills.

In 5729, he married Rachel Meirovitz and together they built their home in the military government in Hebron.

Since then, he has wholeheartedly enlisted the help of Rabbi Moshe Levinger in strengthening Torah study at the ‘Hebron Settlers’ Yeshiva and in the struggle for Jewish rights in the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Rabbi Menachem, with a rare combination of heroism and humility, stood up like a lion for the struggle to transform the Cave of the Patriarchs from a Muslim tourist site into a place of Torah and prayer for the masses of Israel, and in addition, he fought for the redemption of Hebron’s ancient cemetery and the ‘Avraham Avinu’ synagogue.
During these years, Rabbi Menachem immersed himself in the shadow of the Torah and combined study with teaching, initially at the ‘Hebron Settlers’ Yeshiva, later at the ‘Nir’ Hesder Yeshiva in Kiryat Arba, and in 1938 he joined the ‘Idra’ kollel headed by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, zt”l, who was the Chief Rabbi of Israel.

On Passover 1938, Rabbi Libman’s family joined the ‘Beit Hadassah’ families in renewing the Jewish settlement in the inner city of Hebron.
A month later, a bloody attack took place on the yeshiva’s young men, in which six young men were murdered and dozens were injured. In the following years, Rabbi Menachem remained to study and teach at the ‘Avraham Avinu’ kollel and at the high yeshiva of ‘Shavei Hebron’, and his family moved to live in ‘Beit Romano.’
Rabbi Menachem’s great expectation of the redemption of the Land of Israel with the liberation of the territories in the Six-Day War actually encountered a series of acute crises. The security situation deteriorated, the Yesha Arabs cultivated terrorist leadership, and among the people living in Zion, a deep spiritual and cultural fracture of strong doubt about our right to the land of our ancestors was revealed.

Rabbi Menachem was agitated and felt that it was time to act. He spoke, wrote, argued, maintained a correspondence and closely followed the political and spiritual developments in the people. After the Jewish underground affair, in which Rabbi Menachem was persecuted for a long period and felt the pain of the detainees, the rabbi fled Hebron with his family and made aliyah to Jerusalem.

Rabbi Menachem was deeply involved in the world of Torah. He made a name for himself as Rosh Yeshiva at the Idra Yeshiva near the Western Wall. He also taught Arabs in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood and in the kollel in Givat Zeev. Rabbi Libman excelled, in addition to his Torah greatness, in the simplicity of his manners, his admiration for scholars of all backgrounds, and his devotion to the Land of Israel. And the work of God that culminated in his famous recitation of the Shema, in which he invested much strength.

In 1958, on the 13th of Av, his beloved son, Shneur-Shlomo, was murdered, along with Harel Ez ben Nun, on a security patrol they conducted around Yitzhar.
Rabbi Menachem’s heartbreak was unbearable, but with supreme courage he justified the law and sanctified the name of heaven.
With the strength of his soul, he preached to everyone who would listen that now there was a double and redoubled obligation to love God, to engage in His Torah and to adhere to His commandments.
With the passing of Rabbi Goren, Rabbi Menachem sought renewal and found his place in Rabbi Shmuel Tal’s ‘Torat Chaim’ yeshiva in Neve Dekalim in Gush Katif, where he lives in nearby Azmona. Despite the terrible loss he experienced with the murder of his son, Muhammad, he managed to illuminate the yeshiva and the media with the light of his Torah, his prayers and his love. In Azmona, he worked hard to establish Torah lessons.

During those years, the settlements of Gush Katif were frequently bombed and several serious attacks occurred, including an attack on a preparatory school in Azmona in which five Jewish students were murdered.

Just as the sword of expulsion was raised on Gush Katif, Rabbi Menachem fell seriously ill and traveled to Jerusalem to receive treatment there. In the last period of his life, he studied Torah with devotion and thus alleviated the agony of his illness.

On the 2nd of March 1966, Rabbi Menachem passed away and was buried on the Mount of Olives. According to his will, his Torah writings and thoughts were published in the book ‘Yeshuot Menachem’, and a biographical book called ‘Or Menachem’ was published, describing his fascinating character throughout his life.