Dear Rabbi Simon
I think I will find it difficult to hear all 100 notes of the shofar due to childcare and other responsibilities. Is this something I need to repent for on Yom Kippur. It does seem a shame to begin the year with a debit in my account already.
Many thanks
Shifra
Dear Shifra
Thank you for your question. As it is nearly Erev Rosh HaShanah, I will have to be brief: Although the near-universal practice nowadays is to blow 100 notes on the shofar, the mitzvah can defiantly be fulfilled in its entirety by listening (hearkening?) to the first 30 alone. Those are the notes blown before the silent Musaf Amidah. Even those 30 represent a rabbinic precaustino/extensino, as the Torah obligation can be fulfilled with even fewer (nine, to be exact). Moreover, if you want to get really technical, as a time-bound positive mitzvah the obligation to hear the shofar on RH is not incumbent upon women. Of course, you do not want to get that technical, and in practice the righteous women of Israel generally to exert themselves to hear the stirring, if inchoate, Call of the Shofar.
Shanah Tovah!
Rabbi Rashi Simon