Higayon Lev (Logic of the Heart) including The First American Reform Haggadah, Marcus Jastrow, Philadelphia: 1875

Higayon Lev was a liturgical volume for private devotion which was published to supplement the popular Avodat Yisrael prayerbook that Jastrow had created, based on the earlier work of Benjamin Szold. Jastrow’s revisions “creatively modified the classical contours of the Siddur preserved in Szold’s version and added many new prayers.” Among its contents are: selections from Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers); daily prayers for women, children (and adults who lack the time to complete the regular liturgy), all accompanied by a non-literal German translation. There is also a fascinating appendix of children’s prayers which includes, in addition to the more standard basic prayers, special prayers to be recited on one’s birthday as well as on a parent’s birthday.

The most important component of the new edition however is Jastrow's Haggadah, (pp. 35-54), the first printed in America that demonstrates the influence of Reform. Here, the Hebrew elements are reduced to a minimum and incorporate many emendations, even to such quintessential texts as Ha Lahma Anya, Vehi She’amdah and the Four Questions (here reduced to a single query).  When Jastrow reprinted the text with an English translation three years later, he wrote, "this plain narrative is well adapted to suggest many a thought as to what duties are incumbent on the Israelites of our own days, and especially in countries like ours where the morn of religious liberty has already dawned and is shedding its roseate light over all inhabitants alike."