Q&A: A Halakhic Question Regarding Copying in Assignments
A Halakhic Question Regarding Copying in Assignments
Question
Hello Rabbi!
I’m a university student, and we have homework assignments to submit. Almost always, solutions to the homework are posted in WhatsApp groups, and many people copy them or check that their answers are correct, and so on. I should add that almost everyone copies. When submitting the assignments, I mark that I did not copy the assignment and did it on my own. The question is whether it is permissible to do such a thing, from the standpoint of Jewish law?
Thank you very much!
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. Are you asking whether it is permissible to write that you did it on your own? Why not? That is the truth. Not that I see much importance in this. I don’t think anyone takes that into account in the grade, because there is no way to know what others did. I assume the graders give a grade based on the solution.
Discussion on Answer
In principle, it is forbidden to lie. If you know that everyone does this, there may perhaps be room to be lenient.
I meant that even if I copy all the answers, when I submit it I still have to mark that I did it on my own without copying or getting help. Am I allowed to do that?