Answer:
The thought of us residing in utter blindness petrified me! or you could use For a long time he could not utter a word, so that the Rhetor had to repeat his question.
Explanation:
The author of "Zlateh the Goat", Isaac Bashevis Singer, was a Polish Jewish author. In the story, not only are the main characters Jewish, but also the story is set around Hanukkah (and contains references to specific Hanukkah traditions and preparations), an important Jewish holiday. You should also note that the text was initially written in Yiddish, which is a dialect central to Jewish (especially Ashkenazi Jewish) culture.
