The Hebrew writing that you find strange is ksav Ashuris (in English. “Syriac”) and was the alphabet in which Hebrew was written until Galus Bavel. After the return and binyan Bais Sheini the Aramaic alphabet (ksav Aramis) was adopted and is the Hebrew alphabet with which we are familiar today.
N.B. Sifrei Torah are NOT written in ksav Ashuris! The alphabet characters in Sifrei Torah are simply a different font of ksav Aramis.
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