Key to entities used below: א ... ו - The first six Hebrew letters (strongly RTL). ‭ - The LRO (left-to-right override) formatting character. ‬ - The PDF (pop directional formatting) formatting character; closes LRO. If the BDI in the test's first DIV were a SPAN, its b would prevent the א and the ב from forming a single RTL run and thus keep the >s between from being mirrored into <s.