Why does Goodman Brown leave his wife?
Goodman Brown does not literally leave his wife, Faith. She is married to him when he dies, an old woman. However, he does withdraw from her emotionally, becoming distant from her after he has left her for a nighttime journey at the beginning of the story. At that early point, he leaves her because he is going to the woods for a confrontation with evil and temptation, and he doesn't want her to be a part of that.
When he returns, Goodman Brown leaves Faith emotionally because he feels disillusioned and betrayed that she was at the devil's worship service. He had thought of her as wholly pure and good and wanted to protect her, and this occurrence, whether a dream or real, has a shattering effect on Goodman Brown. He can't deal with the evil he suddenly perceives in his wife.
When he comes back from the forest and...
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she comes running towards him joyfully, his change is symbolized by his looking at her and then moving on without speaking. Whatever bond they had is broken.
As the narrator summarizes Goodman Brown's life at the end of the story, we learn that he "shrank" from Faith when he would wake up in bed at night. He no longer trusts her or wants to be close to her. Instead of talking to her about what happened and how distressed he feels, he withdraws into himself and shuts her out. In this way, the devil has gotten hold of Goodman Brown's soul, causing him to cut himself off from the relationships that give life joy and meaning.
What is Goodman Brown's errand and why doesn't he inform his wife?
Young Goodman Brown's errand is actually to go where he ends up going, which is to a wild devil-worshiping orgy in the forest. He doesn't tell his wife where he is going because he wants her to think that he will be going on a business trip. The big surprise in the story is his discovery that his sweet, innocent little wife is not only attending the orgy but has an important role in the proceedings. She might have decided to stay at home if she had suspected that her young model-husband would turn up there that night. Young Goodman Brown probably could have made up a fictitious errand and a fictitious destination, but somehow it doesn't seem that the story requires this kind of dissembling. In Hawthorne's excellent story "Wakefield," included in his Twice-Told Tales, the husband leaves home on a "business trip" and doesn't return for a great many years.