Using the cleveref package with hebrew and babel

Question

I am trying to use the cleveref package with babel and Hebrew. I get the following error (on the second run of Latex):

ERROR: Missing number, treated as zero.

--- TeX said ---
<to be read again> 
                   \beginL 
l.18 And \cref{eq1,eq2}
----------------

Below is a minimal example that produces the above error:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[hebrew,english]{babel}
\usepackage{cleveref}

\begin{document}

\begin{equation}
  \alpha = 1
  \label{eq1}
\end{equation}

\begin{equation}
  \beta = 1
  \label{eq2}
\end{equation}

And \cref{eq1,eq2}.

\end{document}

Is there any workaround for this issue? I don't need any Hebrew cross-references, I just use it in the title and abstract.

PS - Below is a longer version of the error:

ERROR: Missing number, treated as zero.

--- TeX said ---
<to be read again> 
                   \beginL 
\@tempa ->\beginL 
              1\endL 
\@cref@countercmp ...@countstackb }\ifnum \@tempa 
                                                  <\@tempb \relax \def \cref...

\@cmp ...b }{\@countstackb }\fi \@cref@countercmp 
                                                  \fi \fi \fi \fi \expandaft...

\@cref@stack@insert ...f@elem }{#2}{\cref@result }
                                                  \ifnum \cref@result =2\rel...

\cref@stack@insert ...@stack@insert {}{#1}{#2}{#3}
                                                  \cref@stack@pop {#3}
<argument> ...andafter \cref@stack@insert \@tempa 
                                                  \cref@isstackfull {\@refsu...

\@whilesw #1\fi #2->#1#2
                        \@iwhilesw {#1#2}\fi \fi 
\cref@stack@sort ...@tempa \cref@isstackfull {#1}}
                                                  \expandafter \endgroup \ex...
<argument> ... {\@refsubstack }{\cref@countercmp }
                                                  \else \cref@processgroup {...

\@whilesw #1\fi #2->#1#2
                        \@iwhilesw {#1#2}\fi \fi 
\@cref ...nt types}\@cref@stackfullfalse \fi \fi }
                                                  \endgroup 
l.20 And \cref{eq1,eq2}
                       .
--- HELP ---
This is usually caused by a LaTeX command expecting but not finding
either a number or a length as an argument. You may have omitted an
argument, or a square bracket in the text may have been mistaken for
the beginning of an optional argument. This error is also caused by
putting \protect in front of either a length command or a command such
as \value that produces a number.

Answer 1

If you only need hebrew for the abstract you can use a redefinition of \@@number which is defined in the file rlbabel.def. The file is loaded by babel:

\makeatletter
 \def\@@number#1{#1}
\makeatother

The original definition is:

\def\@@number#1{\ifmmode\else\beginL\fi#1\ifmmode\else\endL\fi}

With this redefinition the result will be:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[hebrew,english]{babel}
\usepackage{cleveref}

\makeatletter
\def\@@number#1{#1}
\makeatother
\begin{document}

\begin{equation}
  \alpha = 1
  \label{eq1}
\end{equation}

\begin{equation}
  \beta = 1
  \label{eq2}
\end{equation}

And \cref{eq1,eq1}.
\end{document}