When I type = then a number + another number, I get a fatal error

In LO 5 on Mac El Capitan, my cursor is in a cell. I’m trying to get a sum of numbers. I type “=” then one number “+” a second number. I get a message that says the following: LibreOffice 5.2 - Fatal Error Text forwarder is invalid, model might be dead.

I saw a similar question that identified this as a SUM issue. But that question was killed before it was answered.