[seanmcdirmid]

Hebrew is strange because maybe it was first written in stone rather than ink, so smearing wasn’t an issue? This page at least puts that forward as a possible reason: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-is-hebrew-writt...

[xenospn]

I think clay, no?

[seanmcdirmid]

That makes more sense, but the article speculates otherwise. Cuneiform which was definitely first written on clay tablets is left to right.