Creating a table in XeLaTeX in a Hebrew document

Question

I'm compiling a document completely in Hebrew using XeLaTeX, but I'm having an issue creating a table: using polyglossia, the columns just don't compile...it just gives a string of words. How can I go about fixing this? Here's the MWE:

\documentclass[14pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[paperwidth=5in, paperheight=8in,top=2cm,bottom=1cm,left=1cm,right=1cm ]{geometry}
\setlength{\parindent}{0cm}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{hebrew}

\newfontfamily\hebrewfont[Script=Hebrew]{Frank Ruhl Libre}

\begin{document}


 הזן אותנו  
\begin{tabular}{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
  הזן את הכל.
 \end{document}

Answer 1

this is unrelated to Hebrew or xelatex. A tabular makes a box that is positioned inline in a paragraph just like a large letter. Similarly if you want it in a vertical display you need to place it in an environment such as center

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}


aaa
\begin{tabular}{cc}
  123 & 456
\end{tabular}
bbb

\bigskip

aaa
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{cc}
  123 & 456
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
bbb


\end{document}

Answer 2

As already told in a comment, a tabular with a single row is just something like ”string of words”. Even a tabular with more rows would be printed inline. By default such a tabular would be vertically centered to the current text line. But with the options arguments, you would be able to top or bottom align it:

\documentclass[14pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[paperwidth=5in, paperheight=8in,top=2cm,bottom=1cm,left=1cm,right=1cm ]{geometry}
\setlength{\parindent}{0cm}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage[bidi=default]{babel}
\babelprovide[main]{hebrew}
\babelfont{rm}{FreeSerif}% Sorry, I don't have Frank Ruhl Libre

\begin{document}


הזן אותנו
\begin{tabular}{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
הזן את הכל.

\bigskip

הזן אותנו
\begin{tabular}[t]{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
הזן את הכל.

\bigskip

הזן אותנו
\begin{tabular}[b]{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
הזן את הכל.

\end{document}

To move the table onto a line on it's own, you would need to put it inside an environment like table, center, flushleft, or flushright. Here an example using center:

\documentclass[14pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[paperwidth=5in, paperheight=8in,top=2cm,bottom=1cm,left=1cm,right=1cm ]{geometry}
\setlength{\parindent}{0cm}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage[bidi=default]{babel}
\babelprovide[main]{hebrew}
\babelfont{rm}{FreeSerif}% Sorry, I don't have Frank Ruhl Libre

\begin{document}


הזן אותנו
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
הזן את הכל.

הזן אותנו
\begin{flushleft}
\begin{tabular}{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
\end{flushleft}
הזן את הכל.

הזן אותנו
\begin{flushright}
\begin{tabular}{l l}
בטוב  & בחסד  \\
\end{tabular}
\end{flushright}
הזן את הכל.

\end{document}

You may also want to replace \begin{tabular}{l l} by \begin{tabular}{@{}ll@{}} to eliminate the column separation before the first and after the last column.

I've used babel for hebrew in this example, because font handling IMHO is better with babel but mostly because I know it much better than polyglossia.

Usually, I would suggest to use a floating tables to avoid large vertical gaps, if a longer table does not fit to the current page. Because I don't not speak Hebrew, here an example of the advantage in English:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{mwe}

\begin{document}

\blindtext[3]

As shown with the following table:
\begin{center}
  \begin{tabular}{rr}
    1 & first \\
    2 & second \\
    3 & third \\
    4 & fourth \\
    5 & fifth \\
    6 & sixth \\
    7 & seventh \\
    8 & eighth \\
    9 & ninth \\
    10 & tenth \\
    11 & eleventh \\
    12 & twelfth \\
    13 & thirteenth \\
    14 & fourteenth \\
    15 & fifteenth \\
  \end{tabular}
\end{center}
a longer table can result in large white gaps at the end of the page.

\lipsum[3]

But this does not happen, if you allow the table to float like shown with
table~\ref{tab:example}.%
\begin{table}[htp]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{rr}
    1 & first \\
    2 & second \\
    3 & third \\
    4 & fourth \\
    5 & fifth \\
    6 & sixth \\
    7 & seventh \\
    8 & eighth \\
    9 & ninth \\
    10 & tenth \\
    11 & eleventh \\
    12 & twelfth \\
    13 & thirteenth \\
    14 & fourteenth \\
    15 & fifteenth \\
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{An example table}\label{tab:example}
\end{table}

\blindtext[2]

\end{document}